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Silii 


FRANK    FOPvESTER^S 


HORSE  A^D  HOPiSEMANSHIP 


UNITED   STATES 


BRITISH  PROVINCES  OF  NORTH  AMERICA. 


BY 

HENRY  WILLIAM  HEEBEllT, 

AUTHOR   OP   'FRANK  FORESTHE's   FIELD  SPORTS,"   "FISH   AND   FISHING, 

"thb  complete  manual  for  vouno  spoktsmbn,*' 
etc.  etc.  etc. 


WITH   STEEL-ENGRAVED    ORIGINAL    PORTRAITS    OF    CELEBRATED    HORSES. 

IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 

VOL.  L 


NEW    YORK: 

STRINGER    &    TOWNSEND,     222    BROADWAY, 

LONDON:     TRUBNER     &    CO. 

1857. 


48691 


Entekkd,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1857, 

By  stringer  &  TOWNSEND. 

m  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District  of 

New  Yoik. 


ALL    TRUE    LOVERS 

OP 

THE    HORSE; 

THE     NOBLEST     OF     THE     ANIMAL     OEEATION, 

EVKR    KENDERED    SUBJECT   TO    THE    HAND    OF    MAN, 

HIS     MOST     VALUABLE,     BEST     AND     BRATEST     SERVANT, 

DAUNTLESS     IN     DANGER,     ENDURING     IN     EXTREMITY,     UNCOMPLAINING     IN     DISTICKSS  ; 

ARE    VEEY    EESPEOTFTTLLY     DEDICATED, 

A3  A  TEIBUTE 

TO    THE    QUALITIES    OF    THE    ANIMAL, 

AND 

TO    THE    FEELINGS    OF    THOSE    WHO    DULY   APPRECIATE    HIM, 

BY   TBEIE  PRIBND    AND   SRRVANT, 

FRANK  FORESTER. 


INTRODUCTION 


It  is  a  matter  worthy  of  note,  that  in  a  country  which,  perhaps, 
exceeds  any  other  in  the  civilized  world,  in  the  general  appre- 
ciation, and  general  nse,  among  all  classes  of  citizens,  and  in  all 
districts  of  the  land,  of  that  noble  animal,  The  Hokse,  there  is 
no  American  standard  work  on  the  subject. 

With  a  strain  of  thorough-blood,  derived  undoubtedly  from 
the  best  stock  of  the  mother  country,  but  now  entirely  acclimated, 
and  in  some  degree  altered  or  modified  by  climature  and  breed, 
and  trained  under  different  auspices,  subject  to  widely-different 
diseases,  the  consequence  of  different  temperatures  and  treat- 
ment, and  run  under  different  conditions  of  time,  weight,  and 
distance — in  a  word,  educated,  used  and  handled  under  circum- 
stances wholly  variant — we  have  been  contented,  hitherto,  to 
depend  absolutely  on  English  authorities. 

We  have  no  history  of  the  Turf  of  America,  unless  such  as 
maybe  gleaned  from  the  chance  notices  of  daily  journals,  or  the 
statistical  information  to  be  culled  from  the  dry  details  of  the 
Stud  Book  and  Turf  Register,  or  from  reference  to  the  spirited 
and  glowing  race  records  of  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Times." 

With  an  entirely  new  application  of  the  powers  of  the  Horse 
in  trotting  and  pacing,  as  practised  exclusively  in  North  Amer- 
ica, producing  a  class  or  caste — I  cannot  consistently  term  it 


6  LNTKODUCTION. 

Strain  or  breed,  since  it  does  not  appear  that  blood  has  mucli,  if 
any  thing,  to  do  with  the  matter — of  animals,  in  all  respects  dis- 
tinct from  any  other  in  the  known  world,  of  surpassing  capabil- 
ities of  both  speed  and  endurance,  not  known,  not  understood, 
not  producible — one  might  say — by  existing  systems,  in  any 
other  country,  Ave  have  no  native  account  of  the  plan  by  which 
these  unrivalled  creatures  are  formed,  their  powers  developed, 
their  speed  elicited — scarcely  even  have  we  an  authentic  and 
standard  account  of  the  animals  themselves,  their  performances, 
or  their  pedigree,  to  which  one  may  refer  with  confidence. 

With  half  a  dozen,  at  the  least,  of  distinct  races  of  native 
American  Horses,  probably,  in  the  first  instance,  the  result  of 
chance  combinations  of  old,  well-known  and  established  foreign 
breeds,  which  have  now  been  improved  and  rendered  standard, 
as  perfect  native  stock,  transmitting  their  qualities  both  of  form 
and  capacity  unmixed  from  sire  to  son,  we  have  no  work  fully 
recognizing  the  existence  of  sucli  races,  much  less  analyzing 
their  blood  and  describing  their  points  and  character.  On  the 
contrary,  while  the  Conestoga  horse,  the  Canadian,  the  Indian 
pony  of  the  North,  the  Indian  mustang  of  the  South,  the  Nor- 
man horse  of  the  North-eastern  British  Provinces,  the  pacer — 
probably  of  Nai'raganset  origin — and  the  general  working,  or 
farm  horse,  of  t]ie  Midland  States,  have  no  chronicler,  w^e  go  on 
importing  and  studying  elaborate  treatises  on  the  English  hack- 
ney, the  English  cart-horse,  the  English  dray-horse,  the  Suffolk 
Punch,  the  Cleveland  Bay,  the  Galloway,  the  Shetland  pony, 
and  I  know  not  what  else ;  when  it  is  notorious  to  every  horse- 
man in  the  land,  that  not  one  of  these  varieties  do  exist — ever 
did  exist — except  in  the  case  of  individual  importations — or,  if 
they  did  exist,  would  be  of  any  value  or  utility  in  North 
America. 

In  the  like  manner,  we  have  hitherto  contented  ourselves, 
solely,  with   English  manuals,  even  wlien  in  practice  we  do 


INTKODUCTION.  i 

not  adopt  their  methods,  or  adhere  to  their  instructions ; 
and  when,  it  is  notorious,  that  the  whole  systems  of  stable 
management,  of  field  management,  of  tnrf-handling  and  road- 
handling,  as  practised  in  England, — owing  to  the  discrepancies 
of  climate  and  the  diflfereut  requirements  made  on  the  speed 
and  endurance  of  the  animals — must  be  subjected  to  many 
modifications  and  changes  before  they  can  be  perfectly  adapted 
to  the  horse  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

Thus  we  have  Nimrod,  on  "Summering  Hunters;"  Nimrod, 
on  "Condition;"  Nimrod,  on  the  "  Koad  and  the  Turf;" 
beside  "  Craven,"  and  "  Cecil,"  and  "  Harry  Hieover,"  all 
admirable  writers  on  the  subjects  which  they  treat ;  viz.  the 
natural  or  artificial  adaptation  of  English  animals  to  the  uses  of 
British  field  sports  and  the  requirements  of  British  sportsmen, 
but  not  only  unversed  in  things  as  they  exist,  or  as  they  are 
required  to  exist,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  ;  but  actually  un- 
suited — by  their  too  thorough  acquaintance  with  and  adherence 
to  the  state  of  matters  there — for  understanding  or  appreciating 
the  altered  condition  of  the  same  matters  here. 

I  do  not  intend  these  remarks  to  apply  to  scientific  works  on 
the  pathology,  physiology,  or  special  diseases  of  the  horse,  by 
competent  veterinary  surgeons,  such  as  Youatt  on  the  Horse, 
or  Spooner's  or  Morton's  treatises  on  specialities,  or  the  many 
admirable  essays  on  shoeing,  bitting,  breaking,  the  manege, 
&c. ;  which  treating  of  subjects  natm*al  to  and  co-existent  with 
the  horse,  wherever  he  exists,  are,  with  some  small  modifica- 
tions, invariably  applicable,  and  cannot  be  too  much  or  too 
closely  studied  by  all  the  lovers  of  the  horse  and  horsemanship, 
in  whatever  region  of  the  habitable  world  they  may  chance  to 
be  thrown. 

Again,  in  a  country  like  this,  where  the  use  and  employment 
of  the  horse,  not  only  for  labor  and  service,  but  for  pleasure,  for 
exercise,  for  sport,  is  not  restricted  to  any  one  or  two  classes  of 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

men,  but  is  general  to  tlie  whole  people,  so  that  the  small 
farmer,  the  smart  mechanic,  the  butcher,  the  drover,  or  the 
grocer  at  the  corner,  is  just  as  likely  to  own  his  fast  nag,  that 
can  go  his  mile  low  down  in  the  thirties,  and  to  persist  in  keep- 
ing him  for  his  own  delectation,  in  sj^ite  of  bids  high  up  toward 
the  thousand,  as  any  millionaire  in  the  cities — it  is  remarkable, 
that  so  little  should  be  known,  or  sought  to  be  known,  concern- 
ing the  tliorough  breaking,  bitting,  and  managing  of  the  horse, 
whether  for  the  saddle  or  for  draught,  as  it  is  here. 

Horsemanship,  also,  though  it  be  so  general,  that  it  might 
almost  be  called  universal,  is  at  a  lamentably  low  stage  in  the 
northern  and  middle  States  of  the  Union. 

I  am  aware  that  this  is  an  unpopular  and  will  be  found  an 
unpalatable  statement,  in  general ;  but  nevertheless,  it  is  a  true 
one,  and  I  do  not  seek  for  popularity  for  myself  or  my  book,  at 
the  expense  of  truth. 

It  would  seem,  for  the  most  part,  that  the  dealer  and  tlie 
owner  alike,  consider  that  all  has  been  done  tliat  can  be  done,  or 
that  it  is  desirable  to  have  done,  when  it  is  demonstrated  that 
the  animal  can  go  so  fast — possibly  at  some  almost  incredible 
rate — and  so  long — ^perhaps,  almost  beyond  all  records  of  horse 
endurance — without  the  slightest  reference  to  the  how,  in  style, 
in  form  of  going,  in  ease  or  hardship  to  the  rider  or  driver — 
every  thing  in  a  word  in  the  re,  nothing  in  the  modo. 

I  should  scarcely  say  too  much,  were  I  to  say,  that  however 
admirable  the  qualities  of  horses  offered  for  sale  in  America, 
whatever  their  natural  style,  action,  or  adaptation  for  the  saddle, 
or  harness,  the  buyer  does  not  meet  one  in  one  hundred,  which 
has  received  the  slightest  artificial  education,  which  has  the 
rudiment  of  a  mouth,  that  sine  qua  non  in  a  finished  animal, 
the  smallest  knowledge  of  paces — even  to  setting  off  with  the 
right  leg  in  the  canter— or  the  least  idea  of  carj-jing  its  crest  up, 
its  chin  to  its  chest,  or  its  haunches  under  it. 


INTKODUCTION.  9 

In  like  manner,  of  riders — ^if  lie  can  ponnd  his  beast  along, 
getting  tlie  best  possible  time  out  of  liim,  laying  himself  back  in 
his  stirrups,  and  hanging  on  by  the  reins,  steadied  by  the  eternal 
running  martingale,  and  bearing  with  a  dead  pull  on  the  snaffle 
bit,  the  horseman  esteems  himself,  and  is  esteemed  by  his  con- 
federates and  admirers,  perfect  in  the  art  of  equitation. 

Yet,  put  him  on  a  neatly  broken  horse,  with  a  spirit  that  will 
fire  as  quickly  as  gunpowder  to  the  flash,  with  a  mouth  of 
velvet,  obedient  to  the  weight  of  a  feather — put  him  on  such  a 
horse,  with  a  sharp  curb,  and  no  martingale  or  cavesson  where- 
by to  hang  on,  and  ten  to  one  his  horse  wnll  jump  from  under 
him  at  the  first  capriole  or  soubresault ;  at  all  events,  he  will 
sit  him  much  as  the  miller's  meal-bag  sits  on  the  mill-jade. 

In  a  word,  I  mean  that  out  of  a  thousand  riders  in  ITorth 
America,  there  are  not  five  whose  seat  on  the  horse  is  so  inde- 
pendent of  their  hold  on  the  bridle,  that  they  can  sit  their  horse 
with  their  hands  akimbo,  and  the  bridle-rein  in  their  teeth ; 
and  if  the  seat  be  not  so  independent  of  the  hand,  the  hand  can- 
not be  independent  of  the  seat. 

In  other  words,  if  the  rider,  more  or  less,  rectifies  and  retains 
his  seat  on  the  horse's  back  by  his  pull  on  the  horse's  mouth, 
the  horse's  motions,  which  are  and  must  be  regulated  by  his 
mouth,  will  be  subject  to,  and  guided  by,  the  rider's  seat;  not, 
as  they  ought  to  be,  by  the  rider's  hand. 

ISTo  man  can  be  a  fine  rider  who  has  not  a  fine  hand — no 
man  can  have  a  fine  hand,  whose  seat  is  not  entirely  independ- 
ent of  his  hand  ;  so  that  the  latter  can  play  like  a  steel  spring, 
giving  and  returning  equally,  in  whatever  position  of  the  horse's 
or  rider's  body. 

Consequently,  no  rider,  however  excellent  in  any  one  style 
of  riding,  can  be  called  a  good  or  finished  rider.  To  be  a  per- 
fect rider,  one  must  have  ridden,  and  be  able,  more  or  less,  to 
ride  in  every  conceivable  style  of  legitimate  riding — I  do  not 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

mean  posturing  or  circns-riding  !  Posturers  and  circus-riders, 
are  rarely,  or  never,  good  riders  ! 

One  must,  liave  known  horses  nnder  him,  in  almost  every 
conceivable  position — rearing,  plunging,  kicking,  terrified, 
frantic,  falling  and  even  fallen,  most  of  all  perfectly  managed, 
tine-moutlied  and  high-mettled — and  be  able  to  control  them  all, 
before  he  may  call  himself  a  horseman. 

Now  in  America,  never  has  there  been  any  standard  book 
published,  pretending  to  set  forward  even  the  commonest  rules 
of  stable  management,  bitting,  breaking  and  mouthing  young 
horses,  or  even  of  riding  them,  when  broken.  Kor  in  England 
has  there  been  any  such,  since  the  old  days  of  the  manege^  now 
I  regret  to  say,  obsolete — I  regret  to  say  it,  because  although  too 
formal,  and  savoring  too  much  of  ancien  regime  and  j)recision, 
it  has  yet  much  that  is  most  valuable,  nay,  essential ;  unless  it 
be  a  few  late  volumes  on  cavalry  tactics,  or  cross-country  riding, 
and  a  few  works  on  the  stable. 

It  is  this  void  which  I  hope  and  propose-  to  fill.  The  book, 
which  I  have  now  the  honor  to  lay  before  the  public,  is  almost 
entirely  American  in  its  details,  and  will,  I  trust,  answer  its 
purpose,  as  what  it  is  intended  to  be,  a  thorough  and  general 
compendium  of  all  that  which  most  ought  to  be  known,  and 
which  will  be  most  useful  to  the  American  horsekeeper. 

In  the  compass  of  two  volumes  it  cannot  be  expected  that  I 
should  ofi'er,  as  I  do  not  pretend  to  oflPer,  a  complete  History  of 
the  Turf,  or  of  the  Trotting  Course  ;  but  I  hope  it  will  be  found, 
that  I  have  seized  the  salient  and  distinctive  points  of  both,  as 
regards  this  almost  boundless  country,  and  presented  them  in 
euch  a  form  as  will  not  only  prove  entertaining,  but  useful. 

To  make  a  man  a  rider  or  a  driver,  by  any  written  precepts, 
is  not  within  the  range  of  possibilities ;  much  less  do  I  aspire  to 
give  to  the  horse-owner  a  work  on  the  veterinarian  science, 
which  shall  in  itself  suffice. 


INTKODUCTION.  11 

One  is  no  more  expected  to  be  able  to  treat  intricate  and 
dangerous  diseases  of  his  horse,  than  he  is  to  shoe  him,  fire  him, 
or  cut  him  up  for  the  kennel,  when  in  the  course  of  time  he  may 
chance  to  die.  Any  man  I  should  hold  an  ass,  who,  his  valuable 
animal  being  decidedly  ailing,  would  not  send  for  the  best  far- 
rier within  his  reach  ;  therefore,  and  in  one  word,  I  beg  to  state 
that  this  work  is  meant  only  to  assist  the  horseman ;  not  to 
supersede,  in  two  volumes,  however  full  of  matter,  what  can 
scarcely  be  contained  in  half  a  library. 

Such  as  it  is,  in  a  word,  I  intend  it  to  be,  and  I  hope  it  is, 
thorough  I  and,  as  such,  I  have  the  pleasure  to  offer  it  to  my 
friends  and  the  public — if,  which  I  trust  is  not  the  case,  I  am 
not  bound  to  make  a  distinction  between  them. 

The  First  Yolume  will  be  found  to  contain  a  brief  history, 
with  some  account  of  the  natural  history,  of  the  horse  ;  a  history 
of  the  English,  and  of  the  American,  thoroughbred  horse  ;  some 
accounts  of  the  original  thoroughbred  stock  of  different  States 
and  regions  of  the  United  States  ;  memoirs  and  descriptions  of 
several  of  the  most  distinguished  racers  of  the  United  States, 
with  full  and  original  accounts  of  their  most  remarkable  races  ; 
essays  on  the  breeding  of  the  thoroughbred  horse ;  estimates 
and  views,  both  English  and  American,  of  the  comparative 
qualities  of  the  English  and  American  race-horse ;  essays  on  the 
points  of  the  thoroughbred  horse  for  racing  purposes,  and  on 
the  true  utility  of  the  thoroughbred  horse ;  a  list,  as  complete  as 
could  be  furnished,  from  the  available  means  of  information,  of 
the  thoroughbred  stallions  and  mares  imported  to  this  country, 
from  the  earliest  date  to  the  close  of  the  year  1856  ;  a  set  of  tables, 
carefully  compiled,  showing  the  comparative  number  of  winners, 
with  their  comparative  performances,  respectively  got  by  native 
and  imported  stallions,  within  the  last  twenty-seven  years  ;  and 
a  summary  of  the  results  to  be  deduced  from  those  tables. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

For  the  assistance  I  have  received  from  eveiy  person — with 
one  distinguished  exception,  to  which  I  sliall  not  refer — to  whom 
I  have  presumed  to  ajjply  for  advice  and  information,  with  no 
farther  excuse  for  my  intrusion  than  the  freemasonry  which 
exists  between  all  lovers  of  the  horse,  and  the  importance  of  my 
subject,  I  should  be,  indeed,  ungracious  and  unmindful  did 
not  1  record  my  sincere  gratitude;  and  I  trust  I  shall  be  par- 
doned if  I  take  the  liberty  to  name  those  gentlemen  to  whom  I 
owe  especial  thankfulness,  and  without  whose  kindly  aid 
I  should  vainly  have  endeavored  to  accomplish  my  task,  for 
want  of  the  materials,  which  they  have  most  liberally  fur- 
nished. 

To  Mr.  J.  Prescott  Hall,  of  Newport,  E.  I.,  and  to  Dr.  Sayre, 
of  New  York,  for  the  use  of  their  own  valuable  libraries,  and 
for  that  of  the  late  Charles  Henry  Hall,  enriched  with  his  valu- 
able MS.  notes,  and  those  of  that  distinguished  tilrfman,  the 
late  Cadwallader  D.  Golden,  I  gratefully  acknowledge  my 
indebtedness.  To  Governor  King,  of  New  York  ;  to  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Williatns,  of  Tennessee ;  to  Mr.  David  W.  Jones,  of  Cold 
Spring  Harbor,  L.  I. ;  to  Mr.  Tayloe,  of  Washington  City ;  to 
Mr.  Miliken,  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  I  have  to  return  my  thanks 
for  valuable  written  communications,  and  much  informatiou, 
otherwise  unattainable.  To  Dr.  Sayre,  to  that  late  distinguished 
patron  of  all  that  is  most  manly  in  manhood,  Mr.  John  C. 
Stevens,  and  to  Mr.  Ten  Broeck,  I  am  deeply  indebted  for  their 
loan  of,  and  permission  to  engrave,  the  original  portraits  of 
those  noble  animals.  Sir  Archy,  Eclipse,  Black  Maria,  and 
Pryor ;  and  to  the  owners  of  animals  generally,  for  their  readiness 
to  allow  portraits  to  be  made,  or  photographs  to  be  taken,  for 
the  use  of  this  work. 

The  likenesses  of  Glencoe,  given  both  as  a  type  of  the  En- 
glish thoroughbred  of  the  present  day,  and  as  a  portrait  of  one 
of  the  most  successful  of  recently  imported  stallions,  of  Boston, 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

and  of  Lexington,  are  taken  from  engravings,  with  the  consent 
of  their  owners,  Messrs.  Richards,  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Times ; 
Mr.  Currier,  of  I^ew  York,  and  Mr.  Ackerman,  of  London. 
That  of  Fashion,  with  her  foal,  is  from  an  ambrotype,  for  which 
I  am  indebted  to  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Reber,  her  present  owner, 
there  not  existing  any  satisfactory  portrait  of  her  in  oils.  A  new 
feature  of  this  first  volume,  is  ten  complete  genealogical  tables, 
tracing  back  their  blood  to  the  most  remote  sources,  of  seven  of 
the  most  celebrated  English  horses  to  which  our  American  stock 
are  chiefly  referable,  and  of  three,  the  champions  of  the  Ameri- 
can Turf. 

The  Second  Volume,  perhaps,  of  broader  interest,  will  be 
found  to  contain  accounts  of  the  general  horse  stock  of  America ; 
the  horse  stock  of  the  various  States ;  the  various  distinct 
families,  as  the  Conestoga;  the  Canadian;  the  ISTarragansett 
pacer  ;  the  Yermont  drayght-horse ;  the  Lidian  pony  ;  a  disser- 
tation on  the  Morgan  horse  ;  on  the  trotting  horse  ;  a  compen- 
dious history  of  the  trotting  turf  from  its  commencement,  in  the 
year  1818,  to  the  close  of  the  year  1856,  with  memoirs,  pedi- 
grees, descriptions  and  performances  of  the  most  distinguished 
animals  ;  lists  of  famous  trotters  ;  time  tables  ;  essays  on  breed- 
ing ;  breaking ;  horsemanship  ;  field,  stable,  and  road  manage- 
ment ;  on  stabling,  with  views,  plans,  and  estimates ;  on  shoe- 
ing ;  and  on  the  diseases  of  the  horse — the  volume  concluding 
with  the  rules  of  the  leading  Jockey  Clubs  and  trotting  courses 
of  the  United  States. 

In  the  literary  portion  of  this  volume  1  have  been  aided  by 
contributions  from  Mr.  S.  D.  Harris,  of  the  Ohio  Cultivator ;  of 
Mr.  Joshua  Clements,  of  Dayton,  Ohio ;  Mr.  John  Strohm,  of 
Lancaster  Co.,  Ohio ;  Mr.  A.  Y.  Moore,  of  Schoolcraft ;  Mr. 
W.  G.  H.  Pelton,  of  Grand  Eapids ;  Mr.  E.  Adams,  of  Adrian  ; 
Mr.  Chas.  A.  Jeffr-ies,  of  Dexter ;  a  correspondent,  whose  name 
is  unfortunately  lost,  from  Ypsilanti,  Michigan  ;  and  from  Mr. 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

J.  n.Wallace,  of  tlie  Iowa  Agnciiltural  Societj'-;  to  all  of  whom 
I  return  sincere  thanks. 

For  the  use  of  the  engravings  of  the  double  team  match,  of 
Flora  Temple  and  of  Pocahontas,  I  record  my  obligation  to  Mr. 
N.  Currier,  of  New  York ;  for  the  use  of  that  of  Ladj  Suffolk, 
to  Mr.  G.  W.  Lewis ;  and  for  that  of  Young  Black  Hawk,  to 
his  owner,  Mr.  Yernol,  of  New  York.  The  likeness  of  Ethan 
Allen  is  executed  from  an  original,  painted  exiDressly  for  this 
work,  by  Mr.  Attwood,  with  the  consent  of  his  owner,  Mr.  Roe, 
of  Vermont.  The  woodcuts  of  the  Vermont  draught-horse  and 
the  Conestoga,  are  from  photographs  of  two  noble  animals,  in 
the  possession  of  Messrs.  Adams  &  Co.'s  Express  Company, 
New  York ;  and  that  of  St.  Lawrence,  from  a  photograph  be- 
longing to  the  proprietors  of  "  Forter^s  Spirit."  To  each  and 
all  of  which  gentlemen  I  beg  to  renew  my  acknowledgments  for 
their  courtesy  and  the  accommodation  they  have  afforded  me  ; 
and  now,  before  throwing  myself  on  the  candid  and  liberal 
construction  of  my  friends  and  the  public,  I  have  only  to  record 
my  sense  of  the  valuable  coo]3eration  of  my  friend  Mr.  Philip 
H.  Anthon,  in  compiling  the  statistical  tables,  and  of  Messrs. 
Capewell  and  Kimmell,  the  brilliant  and  artistical  engravers — 
to  whom  my  publishers  have  wisely  entrusted  much  of  their 
finest  and  most  difficult  work — in  their  execution  of  the  plates, 
which  add  so  much  to  the  intrinsic  value  and  beauty  of  my 
work. 

Trusting  that  my  labors  may  not  disappoint  expectation,  and 
conscious  that  if  they  do  so,  it  will  be  owing  to  the  magnitude 
and  difficulty  of  the  task,  not  to  any  want  of  industry  or  research 
on  my  part,  I  commend  myself  to  my  readers,  as  ever 
Their  faithful  and  obliged, 

HJENKY  Wm.  Herbert. 
The  Oedabs,  July  1,  1857. 


LIST  OF  AUTHOKITIES 

CONSULTED   AXD   USED   IN   THE   PEEPARATION   OF   THIS   WORK. 

The  Old  Testament. 

Xexophon  de  ee  Equestei. 

Plin-t. 

QUINTUS  CuETnis. 

A    N^Ew   Method  axd  Extraoedinaet   Invextios^  to   Dress  Hoeses,  by 

THE   MaEQUIS    of   NEWCASTLE. 

Treatise  ox  Hoesemaxship,  by  Philip  Eael  of  Pembeoke. 
Berexgee's  Horsemaxship. 
Adams's  Hoesemaxship. 

YOUATT  ON  the  HoESE. 
WlXTEE  ox  the  HoESE. 

White's  Histoey  of  the  Beitish  Tuef. 

Pick's  Tuef  Eegistee. 

Weatheeby's  Tuef  Eegistee  to  1845. 

ExGLisH  Spoetixg  Magazixe. 

AxxALS  of  Sporting. 

Skinnee's  Tuef  Eegistee. 

Porter's  Tuef  Eegistee  and  Spoetixg  Magazine. 

J.  EiCHAEDs's  Tuef  Eegistee. 

Cadwalladee  Colden's  Spoetixg  Magazixe. 

The  Spieit  of  the  Times. 

The  Ameeican  Farmer. 
iSkin:ner's  Stud  Book. 
JEdgae's  Ajieeioan  Stud  BookI  • 
^iliken^  Histoey  of  the  Tuef  of  South  Caeolixa. 

The  Ohio  Cultivatoe. 


16 


LIST   OF    AUTHORITIKS. 

TnE  Horse,  by  Youatt  and  Cecil. 

Stable  Talk  and  Table  Talk,  by  IIaijey  Eieover. 

PeAOTIOAL   HofiSEMANSniP,   BY   HaEEY  HlEOTER. 

The  Pocket  and  the  Stud. 

The  Hunting  Field. 

Hints  to  Horsemen. 

The  Stud  foe  Practical  Purposes. 

Practical  Horsemanship, 

Baucher's  System  of  Equitation. 

Stewart's  Stable  Economy. 

The  Modern  Horse  Doctor.    Dr.  Dadd. 

Mason's  Farrier. 

"White's  Farriery 

Miles  on  Shoeing. 

NiMEOD  on  Summering  Hunters. 

British  Eueal  Sports,  by  Stonehenge. 

Updike's  History  of  the  Narragansett  Churoii. 

American  Journal  of  Agriculture, 

Encyclopedia  Britannica. 

Knight's  Penny  Cyclopedia. 

-LiNSLEY   ON   THE  MoEGAN   HoRSE, 

Traite  d'Anatomie  Comparatif. 
Traite  de  Physiologie  Comparatif. 
Walsh's  Manual  of  Domestic  Economy. 


ILLUSTRATIONS  TO  VOL.  I. 


ENGEAVINGS     ON     STEEL. 

FEINTED   ON  FINE  INDIA  PAPBB. 

Vignette  Title,  designed  by  F.  0.  C.  Darley,  engraved  by  R.  Hinshelwood. 

Painted  by  Engraved  by  Pagt 

GLENCOE,    ,        .        .        .     c.  HANCOCK,       .        .    j.  c.  buttre,      ,        .      74 

SIR    ARCHT,  .  .  .A.    FISHER,  .  .       CAPEWELL    &   KIMMELL,       122 

ECLIPSE,        .  .  .  .A.    FISHER,  .  .       CAPEWELL    &   KIMMELL,       154 

BLACK  MARIA,  .  .  e.  troye,          .  .  capewell  &.  kimmell,     242 

FASHION,      .          .  .  .  V.   M.   GRISWOLD,  .  R.   hinshelwood,          .      302 

PRYOR,        .        .  .  .  H.  DE  lattre,  .  .  R.  hinshelwood,        .     348 

LEXINGTON,        .  .  .  l.  maxjrer,        .  .  j.  duthie,  .         .        .386 

BOSTON,      .        .  ,  .  h.  DE  lattre,  .  .  capewell  a  kimmell,     424 


ENGRAVINGS      ON     WOOD, 

executed  by  n.  orr. 

Skeleton  of  the  Horse, 66 

Points  of  the  Horse.     Illustrated  by  Elis, 56 

Foal's  Teeth, 61 

Two-Month  Mouth, 62 

Yearling  Mouth, 63 


18  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Section  of  Grinder, 63 

Two-Year-Old  Mouth, 64 

Toree-Year-Old  Mouth, 64 

Four-Year-Old  Mouth, 66 

Five- Year-Old  Mouth, 67 

Six-Year-Old  Mouth, 68 

Seven-Year-Old  Mouth ^ 

Aged  Mouth. 69 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  I. 


Page 

The  Horse,  his  Origin,  Native  Land,  History,  and  Natural  History,           .         .  21 

History  of  the  English  Blood  Horse, "ii. 

•  History  of  the  American  Horse, 108 

.  History  of  the  American  Blood  Horse, 122 

History  of  the  Blood  Horse  in  Tennessee,        .......  140 

History  of  the  Blood  Horse  in  New  York, 149 

Pedigrees,  Performances  and  Anecdotes  of  Famous  American  Racers  of  the 

Modern  Day,    ............  156 

v^Iemoir  of  Sir  Archy, Ill 

Memoir  of  Diomed,  sire  of  Sir  Archy  and  Duroc, 1*75 

Memoir  of  American  Eclipse, 178 

Great  Match  Race  between  Eclipse  and  Sir  Henry, 183 

Pedigree  and  Peformances  of  Ariel, 195 

Ariel  and  Flirtilla  Race, 202 

Pedigree,  Characteristics  and  Performances  of  Black  Maria,         .         .         .  222 

Pedigree,  Performances  and  Characteristics  of  "Wagner  and  Grey  Eagle,         .  251 

Wagner  and  Grey  Eagle's  Races, 253 

Pedigree,  Characteristics  and  Performances  of  Boston, 216 

Pedigree,  Characteristics  and  Performances  of  Fashion,       ....  284 

Race  of  Boston  and  Fashion, 289 

Pedigree,  Characteristics  and  Performances  of  Lexington,  ....  303 

Pedigree,  Characteristics  and  Performances  of  Lecomte,         ....  309 

The  Great  Contest  of  Lexington  and  Lecomte,     ......  314 

The  Great  Match  against  Time — Lexington, 319 

The  Great  Race  at  New  Orleans  between  Lexington  and  Lecomte,        .         .  329 

Pedigree,  Characteristics  and  Performances  of  Arrow, 338 

Pedigree,  Characteristics  and  Performances  of  Pryor,          ....  345 

Pryor  and  Lecomte, 348 


20 


PatK 

Comparative  Estimate  of  American  and  British  Racers,       ....  353 

English  and  American  Views, 378 

Comparisons  of  Speed, 381 

"Best  American  and  English  Horses, 385 

The  Thoroughbred  Race-Horse, 388 

Best  Four-mile  Heat  Races, 396 

To  Ipsus  of  England,  by  Observer, 403 

The  Racing  at  New  Orleans,  by  Observer, 405 

'  The  True  Utility  of  the  Thoroughbred  Race-Horse, 410 

Essential  Points  in  the  Thoroughbred  Horse, 424 

.  Observations  on  Imported  Stallions,     . 434 

List  of  Stallions  Imported  from  England, 441 

List  of  Imported  Mares  and  Fillies, 488 

Table  of  Stock  of  Foreign  and  Native  Sires, 508 

Summary  of  Results, 548 

LIST  OF  PEDIGREES. 


I.— English  Eclipse, 

74 

n. — DioMED,  ....;.. 

129 

III. — Castianira, 

137 

IV. — Leviathan, 

466 

V. — Priam, 

474 

VI.— Glexcoe, 

460 

VIL— Trustee, 

484 

VIIL — American  Eclipse,          .... 

150 

IX. — Boston, 

276 

X. — Fashion, 

284 

THE  HORSE; 

HIS  ORIGIN,  NATIVE  LAND,  HISTORY,  AND  NATURAL  HISTORY. 


In  seeking  to  ascertain  the  especial  land  to  whicli  this,  the  no- 
blest animal  subject  to  the  empire  of  man,  is  indigenous,  the 
nation  which  may  claim  the  honor  of  his  domestication,  and  the 
period  at  wliich  he  was  first  brought  into  general  use,  for  pur- 
poses of  war,  of  pomp  and  of  pleasure,  we  must  have  recourse, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  Holj  Writ,  as  the  most  ancient  and  best 
authenticated  of  existing  histories. 

By  reference  to  the  Sacred  Volume,  we  find  that  although 
the  ass,  an  inferior  member  of  the  equine  family,  was  early  in 
use  among  the  children  of  Israel,  the  horse  was  unknown  to 
them,  until  after  the  commencement  of  their  sojourn  in  the  land 
of  Egypt.  And  there  is  strong  evidence  on  which  to  assume, 
that  it  was  not  until  after  their  arrival  in  that  country,  that  he 
was  there  brought  into  subjection,  if  indeed  he  previously  ex- 
isted therein. 

It  is  difficult,  however,  to  believe  that  any  other  than  Egypt, 
or,  at  least,  Africa,  was  his  birthplace  ;  for  it  is  clear  that  Ara- 
bia, which  many  have  supposed  to  be  the  native  home  of  the 
horse,  and  which  has  done  more  than  any  other  region  in  the 
world  to  improve  the  race,  by  the  admixture  of  its  superior 
strain  of  blood,  did  not  originally  possess  the  animal ;  nor,  in- 
deed, until,  comparatively  speaking,  a  recent  date ;  while  his 
introduction  into  Greece,  and  thence  into  those  regions  of  Europe 
and  Asia  wherein  he  is  now  found,  either  wild,  or  in  a  domesti- 
cated condition,  may  be  traced  to  a  transmarine,  and  probably 
Egyptian,  soui'ce. 


K.  C.  bLci-tfi  College 


22  THE   HORSE. 

In  the  history  of  Abraham,  we  find  frequent  mention  of  the 
ass  used  as  a  saddle-beast,  of  the  camel  as  an  animal  of  bur- 
then, of  flocks  and  herds,  sheep  and  oxen ;  but  the  name  of 
the  horse  does  not  appear,  until  we  descend  to  the  days  of 
Joseph. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  moreover,  that,  on  two  occasions, 
the  former  patriarch  received  costly  presents  from  two  foreign 
potentates,  Abimelech,  prince  of  Gerar,  on  the  northern  fron- 
tier of  Arabia  Petrsea,  and  Pliaraoh,  king  of  Egypt,  oiie  of  that 
dynasty  known  as  the  Shej)herd  kings,  both  of  whom  gave  him 
sheep  and  oxen,  and  man-servants  and  maid-servants,  to  which 
the  latter  added  he-asses  and  she-asses  and  camels  ;  and  this 
fact,  when  the  constant  mention,  at  a  later  period,  of  horses 
given  as  presents  between  oriental  potentates  is  taken  into  con- 
sideration, may  be  assumed  as  a  proof  that  they  were  not  as 
yet  in  general  use,  if  known,  in  either  of  those  countries. 

In  the  reign  of  that  Pharaoh,  however,  whom  Joseph  served, 
we  find  that,  by  the  king's  command,  wagons  were  sent  into 
the  land  of  Canaan,  to  bring  Jacob  and  his  sons,  their  wives 
and  their  little  ones,  during  the  tamine  against  which  the  min- 
ister had  provisioned  his  adopted  nation,  into  the  country  of 
abundance.  It  is  not,  indeed,  exactly  stated  that  these  wagons 
were  drawn  by  horses ;  but,  when  it  is  observed  that,  during 
this  very  famine  of  seven  years,  which  ensued  on  their  entrance 
into  Egypt,  horses  are  first  mentioned,  as  articles  which  Joseph 
took  in  exchange  for  bread  from  the  Egyptian  cultivators  and 
cattle-breeders — that,  on  the  death  of  Jacob,  his  funeral  was 
attended  by  "  both  chariots  and  horsemen  " — and,  lastly,  that 
we  know,  from  the  writings  of  Homer,  and  from  the  ancient 
sculptures  of  Persepolis  and  Nineveh,  the  application  of  the 
horse  to  purposes  of  draught  to  have  been  prior  to  his  being 
ridden,  we  may,  I  think,  lairly  conclude  that  such  was  the  case. 

From  this  time,  the  adoption  of  the  horse,  for  purposes  of 
battle,  appears  to  have  been  extremely  rapid.  For  we  find  that, 
at  the  Exodus,  generally  conceived  to  have  been  in  the  reign 
of  Eamses  Y.,  the  last  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  or  1500  years 
before  the  Christian  Era,  the  pursuing  army  contained  "  six 
hundred  chosen  chariots,  and  all  the  chariots  of  Egypt,"  and  all 
the   horsemen.     Farther,   when   the    Israelites    returned    into 


FIRST   USED    IN    EGYPT.  23 

Canaan,  the  country  lying  between  the  Isthmns  of  Suez  and  the 
ridges  of  Lebanon,  the  horse  had  ah-eady  been  naturalized  in 
that  region ;  inasmuch  as  the  Canaanites  "  went  out  to  fight 
against  Israel,  with  horses  and  chariots  very  ^lan3^" 

From  these  considerations,  and  from  the  fact  that,  so  late  as 
600  years  after  this  date,  Arabia  had  still  no  horses, — as  it  seems 
certain,  since,  while  Solomon  imported  from  Arabia,  silver  and 
gold  and  spices,  it  was  from  Egypt,  only,  that  he  procured  horses 
for  his  own  cavahy  and  that  of  the  allied  kings  of  Phoenicia, — I 
conclude  that  it  was  no  others  than  those  very  Shepherd  kings 
of  Egypt,  described  as  a  dynasty  of  invading  conquerors  of  a 
stranger  race,  termed  the  Hycsos,  whose  origin  is  imknown,  who 
introduced  the  horse  into  Lower  Egypt ;  and  that,  after  this  pe- 
riod, that  country  became  the  principal  breeding  district  and 
emporium  of  that  noble  animal. 

It  may  be  that  these  Hycsos  were  intruders  from  the  eastern 
portion  of  Abyssinia,  bordering  on  Upper  Egypt,  where  there 
Btill  exists,  in  the  kingdoms  of  Dongola  and  Sennaar,  a  very 
superior  breed  of  Barbs ;  and  that  it  was  thence  that  they  in- 
troduced the  horse  into  Egypt,  which  assuredly  does  not  possess 
such  extensive  tracts  of  native  pasture,  or  meadow  lands,  as 
alone  are  adapted  to  the  existence  of  this  animal  in  a  state  of 
nature  and  of  freedom. 

In  Greece,  the  beautiful  fable,  that  the  horse  sprang  from 
the  earth  under  the  impulse  of  the  trident  of  Neptune,  the 
most  puissant,  if  not  the  most  potent,  of  the  gods,  as  the  em- 
blem of  strength  and  warfare,  seems  intended  to  adumbi-ate  a 
belief  of  the  Hellenes  that  the  auimal  came  from  beyond  the  sea. 

We  have,  however,  clearer  evidence  of  the  method  of  his 
introduction,  in  the  universal  tradition  that  the  Thessalians, 
who  were,  from  first  to  last,  the  best  and  most  expert  horsemen 
in  Greece,  as  well  as  the  Athenians,  from  whose  sacred  soil  the 
horse  is  said  to  have  sprung  at  the  summoning  of  the  sea-god, 
and  the  settlers  of  the  Argolis,  were  all  colonists  from  Egypt. 

Here,  then,  in  Europe,  on  the  great  fertile  plains  of  Thessaly 
and  Thrace,  the  boundless  reedy  meadows  on  the  banks  of  the 
Danube,  and  thence  away  to  the  illimitable  horse-pastures  of 
the  Ukraine,  and  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper  and  the  Don,  the 
horse  was  unquestionably  first  introduced,  and  propagated  both 


24  THE   HOESE. 

as  tlie  best  and  noblest  servant  of  men,  and  in  a  state  of  inde- 
pendent liberty. 

In  Media  and  Persia,  the  horse  increased  rapidly ;  and,  from 
a  very  early  date,  the  monarchs  of  those  countries  and  of  As- 
syria employed  a  countless  cavalry,  with  scythed  chariots,  as 
the  most  efficient,  perhaps  even  the  most  numerous,  arm  of 
their  services. 

"  Tliere  is  a  curious  record,"  says  Mr.  Youatt,  in  his  admi- 
rable work  on  the  horse,  to  whom  I  take  this  occasion  of  ren- 
dering my  acknowledgments  for  the  great  assistance  I  have 
received  from  his  pages,  "  of  the  commerce  of  different  coun- 
tries at  the  close  of  the  second  century.  Among  the  articles 
exported  from  Egypt  to  Arabia,  particularly  as  presents  to 
reigning  monarchs,  were  horses."  "  In  the  fourth  century,"  he 
continues,  "  two  hundred  Cappadocian  horses  were  sent  by  the 
Roman  emperor,  as  the  most  acceptable  present  he  could  offer 
to  a  powerful  prince  of  Arabia." 

"  So  late  as  the  seventh  century,  the  Arabs  had  few  horses, 
and  those  of  little  value.  These  circumstances  sufficiently 
prove,  that  however  superior  may  be  the  present  breed,  it  is 
comparatively  lately  that  the  horse  was  natui-alized  in  Arabia." 

In  proof  of  the  last  assertion,  he  proceeds  to  state  that,  "  in 
the  seventh  century  after  Christ,  when  Mahomet  attacked  the 
Koreish  near  Mecca,  he  had  but  two  horses  in  his  whole  army ; 
and  at  the  close  of  his  murderous  campaign,  although  he  drove 
off  twenty-four  thousand  camels  and  forty  thousand  sliee]),  and 
carried  away  twenty-four  thousand  ounces  of  silver,  not  one 
horse  appears  in  the  list  of  plunder." 

From  all  the  above  data,  it  is  sufficiently  evident  that  the 
horse  was  gradually  introduced  into  Arabia  and  the  adjacent  or 
adjoining  Asiatic  countries,  the  latter  the  more  rapidl}^,  from 
Egypt.  And  that  from  the  same  stock  is  derived  the  whole 
race  in  all  the  south-eastern  portion,  of  Europe. 

Egypt  is  not — as  it  has  already  been  observed — a  favorable 
country,  in  any  respect,  for  horse-breeding ;  still  less  for  the 
original  existence  of  the  animal  in  a  state  of  nature.  Whence, 
therefore,  he  was  first  introduced  into  that  kingdom  is  still  in 
some  sort  a  mystery ;  though  there  is,  I  think,  enough  of  indi- 
rect testimony  to  satisfy  any  unprejudiced  mind,  that  he  was 


K   C.  Stat-  ^n}1f>fyr^ 


WILD    HOKSES.  25 

an  original  native  of  the  soil  of  Africa,  to  wliich  alone  liis 
congeners,  the  Zebra,  and  the  Quagga,  are  indigenous,  although 
the  wild  ass  and  the  domestic  sjDecies  are  probably  of  Asiatic 
origin. 

Of  all  the  wild  races  now  existing  in  Europe,  Asia,  or  Ame- 
rica, if  any  do  still  exist  in  the  former  division,  it  is,  however, 
so  nearly  susceptible  of  actual  proof  that  no  one  is  really  indi- 
genous, that  we  may  safely  hold  it  an  established  fact. 

The  Tartarian  breed,  which  are  found  wild,  in  countless 
hordes,  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  Volga  to  the  barren  and 
inhospitable  steppes  of  Upper  Asia  and  the  northern  provinces 
of  China,  can  be  clearly  traced  to  the  cavalry  liorses  employed 
in  the  siege  of  Azof,  in.  1657,  which  were  turned  loose  for 
want  of  forage,  and  have  propagated  their  species  with  unex- 
ampled rapidity ;  unless  it  be  equalled  by  that  which  has  peo- 
pled all  South  America  and  all  the  sparsely  cultivated  districts 
in  the  south-west  of  the  northern  continent,  so  far  east  as  to  the 
Mississippi,  with  the  descendants,  either  self-emancipated  or 
voluntarily  released,  of  the  Spanish  horses,  first  introduced  into 
the  southern  continent  in  1537. 

It  is  somewhat  doubtful  to  me,  whether  the  horses  found  in 
a  feral  state,  in  Texas  and  the  Mexican  provinces,  are  not  the 
descendants  of  chargers  escaped  from  the  I'omantic  expedition 
of  De  Soto  through  those  very  regions ;  rather  than  of  those 
liberated  at  the  abandonment  of  Buenos  Ayres,  or  of  other 
escaped  or  emancipated  animals  of  Spanish  breed,  from  the 
southward  of  the  Isthmus.  Since  the  intricate,  forest-cumbered 
and  brake-entangled  nature  of  that  dark  and  dangerous  bridge 
between  the  two  portions  of  the  continent,  as  well  as  of  the 
adjacent  regions  both  to  the  north  and  south  of  it,  is  so  ill- 
adapted  to  an  animal  like  the  horse,  attached  to  wide,  open 
plains  and  prairies,  and  singularly  averse  to  woody  morasses 
and  densely  clothed  wildernesses,  that  I  cannot  readily  believe 
they  would  voluntarily  have  involved  themselves  in  those 
labyrinths  of  canebrakes,  lianas,  and  mazes  of  almost  impene- 
trable vegetation,  in  progress  of  unmeaning  migration  toward 
unknown  future  habitations. 

The  question,  however,  is  one  of  little  moment ;  for,  although 
some  equine  fossil  remains  have  been  discovered  in  America, 


26  THE    HORSE. 

indicating  the  existence  of  the  horse  on  this  continent,  prior  to 
its  discovery  by  Europeans — though  by  some  unknown  causes 
it  had  been  rendered  extinct,  before  the  date  of  their  arrival — 
it  is  indisputable,  that  in  no  part  of  America,  insular  or  conti- 
nental, nor  yet  in  Australia  or  any  of  the  isles  of  the  Pacific, 
have  any  traces  of  the  horse  been  discovered,  by  the  first  navi- 
gators, who  have  visited,  or  the  first  colonists  who  have  planted, 
their  virgin  shores. 

The  wild  horse  of  America,  therefore,  is  of  undoubted 
Spanish  origin ;  and  is,  to  this  day,  marked  by  many  of  the 
characteristics  of  that  race,  which  shows,  by  the  fineness  of  its 
limbs  and  the  peculiar  formation  of  its  head,  the  large  admix- 
tui-e  it  possesses  of  Moorish  and  Barbary  blood. 

It  is  said,  also,  that  wild  herds,  descended  from  casually 
escaped  domestic  individual  races,  have  been  seen  in  the  woody 
lowlands  of  Jamaica  and  Hayti ;  while  the  Falkland  Islands 
are  stocked  with  considerable  troops,  released  by  the  French 
and  Spanish  colonists ;  and  one  or  more  small  islands,  off  New- 
foundland, were  peopled  by  the  Government  of  Canada  with 
the  Korman  horse,  which  has  become  perfectly  naturalized  and 
almost  indomitably  wild. 

In  Hungary,  until  within  a  short  space,  the  horse  was  still 
known  to  exist  in  the  wide,  open  plains  or  savannahs,  in  a  state 
of  nature ;  in  those  fierce  and  fiery  squadrons,  described  by 
Byron  in  Mazeppa, 

"  Wide  flowing  tail,  and  flying  mane, 
Wide  nostril^ — nevtr  stretched  by  pain — 
Mouths  bloodless  to  the  bit  or  rein. 
And  feet  that  iron  never  shod, 
And  flanks  unscarred  by  spur  or  rod, 
A  thousand  horse,  the  wild,  the  free, 
Like  waves  that  follow  o'er  the 


but  it  is  probable  they  are  extinct  for  ever  in  Europe,  unless 
some  be  found  on  the  confines  of  European  and  Asiatic  Eussia. 
Whether  the  animal  is  yet  to  be  found  in  a  state  of  nature 
in  Arabia  appears  questionable  ;  although  it  is  stated  that  they 
still  exist,  thinly  scattered  in  the  deserts,  and  are  hunted  by  the 
Bedouins  for  their  flesh,  and  also  to  improve  their  inferior 
breeds  by  a  different  strain  of  blood.     "  They  are  said  to  be 


PERHAPS   rSTDIGENOTIS   TO   BEITAIN.  2T 

swifter  even  than  the  domesticated  horse,  and  are  usually  taken 
by  traps  set  in  the  sand.  Mr.  Bruce,  however,  doubts  whether 
any  wild  horses  are  now  found  in  Arabia  Deserta."  * 

In  Central  Africa,  however,  wild  horses  still  roam  untamed, 
far  to  the  southward  of  the  great  desert  of  Sahara,  in  the  coun- 
try of  Ludamar,  where  they  were  seen  by  Mungo  Park  in  great 
droves.  From  that  district  there  extends  a  range  of  fertile, 
well-watered,  grassy,  and  in  part  wooded  country,  to  Nubia 
and  Upper  Abyssinia,  whence,  in  my  opinion,  the  horse  was 
first  introduced  into  Egypt,  and  thence  into  Arabia,  Europe  and 
the  East. 

Fossil  remains  of  the  horse  have  beei)  discovered,  of  extreme 
antiquity,  in  some  of  the  oldest  formations  in  Great  Britain.  In 
the  Kirkdale  cave,  in  Yorkshire,  the  bones  of  this  animal  are 
mingled  with  those  of  the  elephant,  rhinoceros,  ox,  bison,  deer, 
tiger,  hyaena,  and  other  beasts  of  prey ;  and  from  the  absence 
of  human  remains,  as  well  as  from  the  condition  of  the  bones 
and  the  abundance  of  fossil  excrements  of  the  hysena,  it  is  the 
opinion  of  Dr.  Bucklaud,  that  England  was  not  peopled  at  the 
period  when  this  remarkable  cavity  of  the  earth  was  filled, 
and  its  predatory  inhabitants  submerged,  with  the  relics  of 
their  prey,  by  the  rising  waters  of  some  local  or  general  inun- 
dation. 

It«certainly  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  proof  that  the  English 
horse  is,  in  any  part  of  its  blood,  still  autochthonous  or  abori- 
ginal, that  such  fossil  remains  are  found  there  ;  any  more  than 
it  is  of  the  wild  horse  of  the  American  Pampas  or  Prairies. 

It  is,  however,  observable,  that  at  the  period  of  the  first 
Boman  invasion,  the  horse  was  domesticated  in  Britain ;  and 
not  only  domesticated,  but  so  numerically  abundant,  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  forces,  which  resisted  the  invaders,  were  chariot- 
eers and  cavalry.  So  much  so,  that  when  Cassivelan  discharged 
his  tumultuary  army,  as  unable  to  resist  the  legions  in  the  field, 
he  retained  a  picked  body  of  four  thousand  war  chariots,  where- 
with to  impede  the  movements,  and  cut  up  the  foragers  of 
Csesar. 

And  this  being  the  first  introduction  of  the  British  isles  into 

*  Touatt  on  the  Horse,  11. 


28  THE   HORSE. 

the  civilized  world,  before  which  period  no  historical,  and 
scarcely  even  a  traditional,  record  exists,  there  is  some  shadow 
of  reason  for  suspecting,  from  the  frequency  of  his  fossil  remains 
in  the  islands  and  his  actual  domestication  there  on  their  hrst 
discovery,  that  the  horse  may  have  been  originally  indigenous 
to  Great  Britain. 

Just  in  the  same  manner,  it  would  have  naturally  been  imag- 
ined, by  the  first  visitors  of  this  continent,  had  they  found  the 
natives  accustomed  to  the  use  of  horses,  that  the  animal  had 
existed  here  since  the  Creation ;  and,  had  their  suspicion  been 
corroborated  by  the  subsequent  discovery  of  fossil  remains, 
science  would  have  justified  the  belief. 

It  is  not,  however,  of  the  British  islands  altogetlier  so  con- 
clusive ;  since  it  is  possible  that  the  race,  whose  fossil  remains 
are  found  in  conjunction  with  those  of  other  extinct,  and,  per- 
haps, antediluvian  quadruj)eds,  may  also  have  been  extinguished 
by  some  natural  cause,  and  re-introduced  either  from  Gaul,  or 
by  the  Phoenicians,  who  certainly  visited  the  channel  isles  in 
search  of  tin,  before  the  Eoraan  invasion.  Throughout  the 
oriental  world,  cavalry  with  the  addition  of  chariots  immediately 
became  as  decidedly  the  first  arm  in  all  services,  as  it  was  at  a 
later  date  in  the  days  of  chivalry ;  until  cuirass  and  lance  and 
all  the  gorgeous  paraphernalia  of  knightly  warfare  went  down, 
to  rise  no  more,  before  the  rolling  Spanish  volleys  at  Pavia. 

In  Europe,  however,  with  but  a  few  exceptions,  the  use  of  the 
horse  in  warfare  was  slowly,  and  never,  it  may  be  said,  until 
ages  had  elapsed,  generally  adopted.  The  Spartans,  the  Athe- 
nians, the  Thebans,  when  at  the  highest  of  their  military  great- 
ness, had  but  inferior  and  slender  cavalry  services.  At  the 
battle  of  Marathon,  the  allies  had  no  horse  whatever ;  and  at 
Plataea,  one  year  later,  although  they  had  a  combined  force  of 
above  110,000  men  in  the  field,  they  had  not  a  single  squadron 
of  cavalry  in  tlieir  army,  even  to  protect  their  convoys ;  in 
consequence  of  which  they  suffered  severely,  and  were  actually 
in  danger  of  being  literally  ridden  down  and  trodden  underfoot 
by  the  desperate  charges  of  the  myriads  of  Persian  horse. 

On  this  occasion,  however,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the 
Thebans,  the  Thessalians,  who  as  yet  were  not  properly  Greeks, 
though  of  Hellenic  race,  and  the   semi-barbarous  Thracians, 


THE    OLYMPIC    H0R8E-KACES.  29 

fouglit  on  the  side  of  the  Persian.  It  is  somewhat  remarkable 
that,  at  this  very  period,  the  horse  was  in  the  highest  favor  and 
repute  with  all  the  Greeks  ;  that  no  imaginable  pains  or  expense 
were  spared  to  improve  his  breed,  to  arrive  at  perfection  in 
speed,  endurance  and  condition  ;  and  that  chariot-i-acing  stood 
the  highest,  in  point  of  honor,  of  all  the  contests  of  the  Olympic 
games.  For  it  is  so  early  as  the  25th  Olympiad,  equivalent  to 
the  year  680  before  the  Christian  era,  that  chariot-races  were 
introduced  among  the  Olympian  contests,  which  had  then  been 
established  ninety-six  years,  whereas  the  battle  of  Platsea  was 
not  fought  until  the  second  year  of  the  seventy-fifth  Olympiad, 
corresponding  to  478  B.  C,  or  nearly  two  centuries  after  the 
introduction  of  horse-racing,  among  the  Greeks. 

To  such  an  extent,  moreover,  was  this  display  of  horse- 
racing — for  of  those  days  it  hardly  can  be  termed  a  sport — 
prosecuted,  that  Alcibiades,  the  Athenian,  who  lived  at  the  very 
date  of  which  we  are  treating,  sent  at  one  time  no  less  than 
seven  four-horse  chariots  to  the  Olympic  games,  three  of  which 
obtained  prizes  ;  and  that  the  satirical  comedian,  Aristophanes, 
speaks  of  the  horse-breeding  mania  among  the  noble  youths  of 
Athens,  who,  like  the  Koman  equites  in  later  days,  took  rank 
in  consequence  of  their  serving  on  horseback  at  their  own 
charges,  as  a  constant  cause  of  impoverishment  and  ruin*  — 
precisely  as  we  moderns  speak  of  the  ruinous  expenses  and 
results  of  Epsom  and  Newmarket. 

The  nature  of  the  country,  it  is  true,  both  in  the  Pelopon- 
nesus and  in  all  Upper  Greece,  southward  of  the  great  open 
plains  of  Thessaly,  being  mountainous,  with  gorges  and  ravines, 
rather  than  valleys,  intervening,  is  unsuited  generally  to  the 
horse  ;  and,  in  confirmation  of  this  view  of  the  subject,  it  may 
be  observed  that  the  Bceotians,  who  possessed  more  level  land 

*  In  a  fine  chorus  of  the  iirirus,  addressed  to  Neptune. — See  Mitchell's  Tr. 
Lord  of  the  waters,  King  of  might, 
Whose  eyes  and  ears  take  stern  deUght 
In  neighing  steeds  and  stormy  fight 

And  galleys  swift  pursuing  ; 
And  starting  car  and  chariot  gay, 
And  contests  on  that  festive  day, 
When  Athens'  sprightly  youth  display 
Their  pride  and  their  undoing. 


30  THE    HORSE. 

thau  any  other  of  the  pure  Greek  States,  also  excelled,  com- 
paratively speaking,  in  their  cavalry. 

To  the  same  cause,  doubtless,  must  be  ascribed  the  deficiency 
or  rather  total  absence  of  cavalry  among  the  Israelites,  a  singu- 
larly brave,  warlike  and  conquering  people,  who,  nevertheless, 
60  totally  neglected  the  horse,  for  which  animal  their  rocky, 
precipitous  and  stony  country  is  especially  unsuited,  that  it  was 
not  even  used  among  them  for  purposes  of  state  or  show,  the 
ass,  on  the  contrary,  being  the  saddle-animal  of  their  patriarchs, 
their  princes,  and  their  prophets,  and  the  beast,  on  which  the 
Saviour  of  the  Universe  entered  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  palm 
branches  stre\vn  beneath  his  feet,  amid  Hosannahs,  hailing  him 
King  of  the  Jews.* 

The  first  Greek,  who  seems  to  have  ^^aid  particular  attention 
to  the  horse,  on  which  he  wrote  an  admirable  treatise,  is  Xeno- 
plion,  the  celebrated  captain  of  the  retreat  of  the  ten  thousand, 
who  was,  no  less  deservedl}-,  famous  as  a  horseman  and  a  hunter, 
than  he  was  as  a  soldier  and  a  statesman.  Of  this  work  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter,  when  treating  of  the  Greek 
horse  as  a  special  variety. 

We  have  seen  thus  far,  that  so  late  as  the  early  Persian, 
and,  I  may  add,  during  the  Peloponnesian  wars,  the  cavalry  of 

*  It  is  well  worthy  of  especial  remark,  as  is  observed,  I  think  originally  in  Mr. 
Winter's  excellent  work  on  the  horse,  that  the  attributing  the  adoption  of  this 
animal,  on  the  occasion  of  the  triumphal  entry  of  the  Saviour  into  Jerusalem, 
"  meekly  riding  on  an  ass,"  to  /lumility,  is  an  error  on  the  part  of  modern  divines, 
not  supported  by  any  fact,  but  wholly  at  variance  with  the  ancient  and  even  the 
present  usage  of  the  inhabitants  of  tlie  Holy  Land. 

"Asses,"  he  says  "were  once  more  highly  esteemed  in  Palestine  than  horses,  for 
reasons  before  stated,  and  people  of  the  first  quality  there  commonly  rode  on  them. 
Deborah,  in  her  song,  describes  the  great  and  powerful  of  Israel  by  the  expression, 
'  Ye  that  ride  on  white  asses.'  At  the  present  day,  a  breed  of  white  asses,  cele- 
brated for  its  excellence,  is  found  near  Bussorah.  This  race  is  cultivated  with  the 
greatest  attention,  and  is  supposed  by  Lieut.  Col.  Smith  to  be  as  ancient  as  the  time 
of  the  kings  of  Judah.  Jair  of  Gilead  had  thirty  sons,  who  rode  upon  as  many 
asses,  and  commanded  in  thirty  cities.  Abdon,  one  of  the  judges  of  Israel,  had 
forty  sons  and  thirty  grandsons,  who  rode  on  seventy  asses. 

"  Moses  had  previously  forbidden  the  use  of  horses,  on  account  of  their  being 
more  unfitted  to  the  country  than  asses." 

This  unfitness  consists  principally  in  the  flexibility  of  the  pastern,  flatness  of  the 
hoof,  and  thinness  of  the  horny  crust,  in  the  horse,  as  compared  with  the  upright, 
rigid,  and  hard  foot  of  the  ass,  especially  before  the  use  of  horse-shoes. 


CAVALRY    IN    GREECE.  31 

Greoce  was  of  small  numerical  use  and  of  inferior  consideration, 
in  the  daj  of  battle  ;  although,  according  to  Xenophon's  direc- 
tions for  the  armament  and  equipment  of  a  trooper,  they  were 
certainly  formidably  accoutred  and  well  drilled  for  active  ser- 
vice. So  soon,  however,  as  the  Macedonians,  whose  kings  were 
of  the  old  heroic  stock  of  Hellas,  though  the  people  were  not 
esteemed  Greeks — in  proof  of  which  assertion,  it  may  be  stated 
that  the  kings  had  always  been  allowed,  on  proving  their  pedi- 
grees, to  contend  in  the  Olympic  games,  to  which  none  but 
Greeks  were  admitted — so  soon,  I  say,  as  the  Macedonian  kings 
came  into  the  shock  of  battle,  whether  Greek  to  Greek,  or  Greek 
to  Barbarian,  the  Thessalian,  Acarnanian  and  Thracian  horses, 
the  latter  bred  on  the  boundless  plains  between  the  Archipelago 
and  the  Danube,  were  brought  into  play  ;  and  cavalry  at  once 
became  an  important  part  of  armies,  and,  often  from  this  time, 
the  arm  which  turned  the  balanced  scale  of  victory. 

In  all  Alexander's  battles,  he  himself  charged  at  the  head 
of  his  splendid  cavalry,  having  a  good  deal  of  the  paladin  of 
chivalry  in  his  temper  and  constitution,  and  for  the  most  part 
made  the  final  impression  by  that  irresistible  onset. 

From  this  time  forward,  the  cavalry  was  a  favorite  and  suc- 
cessful arm  with  the  Greeks.  Philopoemen,  the  general  of  the 
Achaean  league,  was  the  best  cavalry  officer  of  the  world,  the 
Murat  of  his  day.  Pyrrhus  of  Epirus,  the  successor  of  Alex- 
ander, and  descendant,  as  he  claimed  it,  of  Achilles,  relied 
much  on  the  charge  of  his  barded  cuirassiers,  in  his  wars  against 
the  Komans — who  never,  to  the  end  of  their  marvellous  history 
of  universal  conquest,  did  any  thing  with  Italian  native  horse, 
or  indeed  with  cavalry  at  all,  until  they  had  Numidian,  Span- 
ish, Gallic  and  German  troopers  in  their  armies. 

Tlie  same  was  the  case  with  the  latter  Philip  of  Macedon, 
and  his  son  Perseus,  against  whose  superior  horse  the  Eoman 
consuls  could  make  head  only  by  the  assistance  of  their  ^tolian 
and  Acarnanian  allies,  the  blood  of  the  Greek  horses  of  that 
day,  coming  from  the  extreme  east  of  Europe,  being  incompar- 
ably superior  to  that  of  the  west,  which  probably  had  then  re- 
ceived no  further  mixture  of  the  oriental  strain,  since  their  first 
introduction  frem  their  native  land;  whence  by  a  course  of 
continued  breeding-in-and-in  they  had  seriously  deteriorated — a 


32  THE    HOKSE. 

deterioration  which  became  yet  more  palpably  manifest,  when 
they  were  opposed  to  the  Nuraidian  barbs  of  Hannibal,  only  to 
be  swept  away  like  dust  before  the  whirlwind. 

With  regard  to  the  general  character  and  appearance  of  the 
ancient,  and  more  especially  the  Greek  horse,  we  have  two 
means  of  forming  an  opinion — first,  from  the  various  sculptures 
yet  extant  of  this  animal,  both  in  harness  and  mounted  ;  and 
second,  from  the  elaborate  and  admirable  directions  given  by 
Xenophon — irepl  i7r7nK^<i  caj).  1.  2.  &  sq — for  purchasing,  ac- 
cording to  exterior  points ;  "  since,"  he  observes,  "  there  is 
no  means  of  proving  his  temper,  until  one  shall  have  backed 
him." 

Of  sculptures,  the  oldest  probably  in  existence,  many  of 
them  contemporaneous  with  the  kings  of  Assyria,  who  figure 
in  the  pages  of  Holy  Writ,  certainly  the  oldest  yet  discovered, 
are  those  wondrous  relics,  disinterred  by  Layard  from  the  ruins 
of  Nineveh,  illustrative  of  almost  every  phase  of  regal  and 
military  life — and  the  two  epithets,  at  that  day,  were  nearly 
one — when  real  warfare,  or  its  mimicry,  the  chase  of  dangerous 
and  savage  beats,  were  the  sole  out-of-door  occupation  of  the 
chiefs  and  heroes  of  those  undegenerate  ages. 

In  tliese  sculptures,  the  horse  figures  continually  in  almost 
every  attitude  and  pace ;  but  in  most  instances  he  is  represented 
as  an  animal  of  draught,  harnessed  singly,  two,  or  four  abreast, 
to  chariots  of  light  construction,  which  he  is  often  drawing  at  a 
tearing  gallop,  but  rarely  carrying  a  mounted  rider. 

In  all  these  sculptures,  he  is  represented  as  a  remarkably 
high-crested,  large-headed,  heavy-shouldered  animal,  rather 
long-bodied,  powerfully  limbed,  his  neck  clothed  with  volumes 
of  shaggy  mane,  which  is  often  plaited  into  regular  and  fanciful 
braids,  and  his  tail  coarse  and  abundant,  frequently  ornamented 
similarly  to  his  own  mane  and  to  the  beard  and  hair  of  his 
driver.  He,  therefore,  had  nothing  of  the  modern  Arab  in  his 
form  or  character. 

The  carvings  are  exquisitely  fine,  the  attitudes  spirited  and 
striking,  and  there  are  not  unusually  seen  attempts  at  indicating 
the  anatomical  structure,  and  course  of  arteries,  sinews  and 
muscles.  We  have  no  reason,  therefore,  to  doubt  that  the  general 
character,  bearing,  and  aspect  of  the  animal  are  truly  kept, 


ATTIC    HOKSKS,    OF    PHIDIAS,  33 

or  that  the  delineations  were  made  from  what  was  then  consid- 
ered the  finest  and  most  perfect  type  of  the  cj'eature,  which  is 
generally  represented  as  ministering  to  the  pleasures  of  the 
great  king. 

In  all  respects,  then,  it  must  be  observed,  the  horses  of  the 
oriental  royalties,  which  were  harnessed  in  the  scythed,  cars  of 
those  Assyrian  conquerors,  who  came  down  on  Israel  "  like  the 
wolf  on  tlie  fold ;  "  and  in  the  iron  chariots  of  those  Phoenician 
kings  of  Canaan,  who  "fought  in  Taanach  by  the  waters  of 
Megiddo,"  when  "  the  river  of  Kishon  swept  them  away,  that 
ancient  river,  the  river  Kishon,"  were  as  unlike  as  possible  to 
the  low-statured,  delicate-limbed,  small-headed  Arabs  and 
Barbs,  with  their  basin-faces,  large  full  eyes,  and.  long  thin 
manes,  from  which  the  modern  blood  horse  has  derived  his  pe- 
culiar excellence. 

Next  to  these,  probably,  in  antiquity,  and  infinitely  surpass- 
ing them  in  beauty  of  design  and  perfection  of  execution, — sur- 
passing, it  is  likely,  any  thing  that  ever  has  been,  or  that  ever 
will  be  performed  in  sculpture,  we  have  the  superb  equestrian 
groups  from  the  Propylgea  of  the  temple  of  Minerva  in  the 
Acropolis  at  Athens,  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  and  uni- 
versally known  as  the  Elgin  marbles  ;  which  are  generally  sup- 
posed to  be  the  work  of  Phidias  and  his  pujDils ;  the  work  of 
the  Athenian  chisel,  surely,  when  Grecian  art  was  at  its  highest 
flight,  and  when  the  Attic  mania  for  horse-breeding  was  at  the 
extreme  of  fashion. 

The  attitudes  and  action  of  the  cavalry  and  the  seats  of  the 
cavaliers,  the  high-born  A^^m,  which  word,  like  its  equivalent 
the  Roman  cquites^  we  erroneously  translate  hnights,  are  inimi- 
table. ISTothing  that  the  pencil,  the  burin,  or  the  chisel,  ever 
has  delineated,  excels,  if  it  equals,  these  sculptures,  destined 
only  to  be  regarded  from  a  distance,  as  being  the  decorations  of 
the  frieze  of  a  gigantic  temple,  for  freedom,  ease,  vigor  and  spirit. 

In  one  of  the  finest  groups  some  half-dozen  riders  are  cara- 
coling gayly  along,  their  horses  well  thrown  back  on  their 
haunches,  some  going  disunited,  some  at  a  regular  and  perfect 
canter,  and  sitting  the  animals  with  a  pose  of  such  perfect  bal- 
ance, ease,  aplomb  and  grace,  so  that  the  rider's  hand  is  entirely 
independent  of  his  seat,  as  proves  that  equestrianism,  as  an  art 
YoL.  I.— 3 


34  THE    UOKSE. 

and  a  grace,  must  have  been  cultivated  to  a  high  degree  in 
Athens,  how  deficient  soever  the  state  might  be  in  cavahy,  as 
an  arm  of  tlie  service. 

These  horses,  then,  of  Minerva  on  the  Acropolis,  hard  by 
the  spot  where  the  first  of  the  race  was  fabled  in  the  ancient 
mythos  to  have  sprung  from  the  earth  at  the  summoning  of  the 
world- shaker's  trident,  carved  from  the  pure  Pentelical  or  Pa- 
rian ]"ock,  in  the  school,  if  not  by  the  hand,  of  the  greatest  of 
Greek  sculptors,  may  be  presumed  copies  from  the  most  per- 
fect type  of  the  Greek,  as  the  sculptures  of  Nineveh  have  been 
assumed  to  be  models  of  the  Assyrian  or  oriental  courser. 

Now,  judging  from  these  sculptures,  the  Greek  horse  was 
not  above  fourteen  and  a  half  hands  in  height  ;  and,  instead  of 
the  graceful,  spiry  formation  of  the  Arab,  the  Barb,  or  the 
Thorough-bred,  had  the  short,  rigid,  stocky  shapes  of  the  Gal- 
loway or  Cob.  They  are  all  what  is  vulgarly  termed  cock- 
thrappled, — that  is  to  say,  having  the  windpipe  and  fore-neck, 
above  its  insertion  in  the  chest,  jDrojected  like  the  same  parts  of 
a  game-cock  when  in  the  act  of  crowing — a  fault  in  formation, 
which  renders  it  impossible  for  the  animal  to  bring  his  chin 
in  to  his  chest,  when  curbed  upon  his  haunches  ;  and,  with 
their  hogged  manes,  short,  closely-ribbed,  round  barrels,  heavy 
joints,  short,  stiff  pasterns,  and  high,  upright  hoofs,  look  like, 
what  they  doubtless  were,  a  large  breed  of  clever,  active,  able 
Galloways. 

In  my  youth,  I  have  seen  fifty,  and  owned  and  ridden  near- 
ly half-a-dozen,  half  or  one  third  bred  Galloways,  which  retain- 
ing the  exact  cut  and  type  of  the  original  Scottish  Galloway 
pony,  had  some  admixture  of  pure  blood,  and  any  one  of  these 
might  have  served  as  an  exemplar  for  the  Athenian  horse  of 
the  Elgin  marbles. 

The  description  of  animal  I  mean,  though  rarely  seen  in 
this  country,  is  common  enough  in  England,  being  that  to 
•which  the  sons  of  the  landed  gentry,  while  learning  to  ride,  are 
ordinarily  promoted,  as  an  intermediate  step  between  the  small 
pony  and  the  full-blooded  hunter.  I  have  seen  some  of  them 
carry  their  light-weight-riders  well  up  to  hounds,  and  hold  a 
good  place  among  real  horses  with  men  on  their  backs.  But, 
as  horses  to  be  backed  by  men,  they  would  be  nowhere  on  a 


ATTIC    HORSES,    OF    XENOPHON.  35 

race-course,  nowhere  in  a  liunting  field,  and  worse  than  nowhere 
in  a  cavah-y  action. 

This,  of  course,  accounts  easily  enougli  for  the  small  use  of 
cavalry  by  the  ancients  in  action,  especially  against  the  favorite 
tactic  of  the  phalanx,  which,  while  in  unshaken  order,  would 
have  hurled  back  the  charge  of  Murat's  or  Milhaud's  cuiras- 
siers, as  a  rock  does  the  surges. 

We  now  come  to  the  writings  of  Xenophon,  which,  as  the 
animal  he  describes  is  evidently  identical  with  the  horse  of  the 
Phidian  school  of  sculpture,  furnish  a  complete  reply  to  the  ar- 
gument of  those,  who  would  insinuate  that  works  of  art  are  not 
to  be  construed  into  copies  of  existing  realities,  but  are  simply 
expressions  of  an  ideal  type  ;  and  who  consequently  argue,  that 
the  horses  of  the  Elgin  marbles,  like  the  lions  of  Rubens,  are 
poetical  or  artistical  fictions ;  not,  like  the  Bulls  of  Paul  Potter 
and  the  Dogs  of  Landseer,  the  present  images  of  the  creatures 
which  they  represent. 

I  have  said  that  Xenophon's  instructions  are  admirable,  and 
the  points  on  which  he  insists,  as  well  as  his  reasons  for  insist- 
ing on  them,  precisely  tliose  which  would  be  required  and  as- 
signed by  an  expert  veterinarian  to-day.  They  are,  however, 
the  points,  as  I  have  observed,  of  a  clever  active  Gallow^ay  or 
Cob,  not  of  a  thorough-bred,  a  hunter,  or  even  a  cavalry  charger, 
much  less  of  a  pure  Barb  or  Arab. 

"  First,"  he  says,  "  we  will  write,  how  one  may  be  the  least 
deceived  in  the  purchase  of  horses.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  of 
the  unbroken  colt  one  must  judge  by  the  bodily  construction  ; 
since,  if  he  have  never  been  backed,  he  will  afford  no  very  clear 
evidences  of  his  spirit.  Of  his  body,  then,  we  say  that  it  is 
necessary  first  to  examine  the  feet ;  for,  as  in  a  house  it  matters 
not  how  fine  may  be  the  superstructure,  if  there  be  not  sufiicient 
foundations,  so  in  a  war  horse  there  is  no  utility,  no,  not  if  he 
have  all  other  points  perfect,  but  be  badly  footed.  But  in  ex- 
amining the  feet,  it  is  befitting  first  to  look  to  the  horny  portion 
of  the  hoofs,  for  those  horses  which  have  the  horn  thick,  are  far 
superior  in  their  feet  to  those  which  have  it  thin.  Nor  will  it 
be  well  if  one  fail,  next,  to  observe  whether  the  hoofs  be  up- 
right, both  before  and  behind,  or  low  and  flat  to  the  ground  ; 
for  high  hoofs  keep  the  frog  at  a  distance  from  the  earth,  while 


36  TIIK    IIOKSK. 

the  flat  tread  with  equal  pressure  on  the  soft  and  hard  parts  of 
the  foot,  as  is  the  case  witli  bandy-legged  men.  And  Simon 
justly  observes,  that  well-footed  horses  can  be  known  by  the 
sound  of  their  tramp,  for  the  hollow  hoof  rings  like  a  cymbal, 
when  it  strikes  the  solid  earth.  But  having  begun  from  below, 
let  us  ascend  to  the  other  parts  of  the  body.  It  is  needful,  then, 
that  the  parts  above  the  hoof  and  below  the  fetlocks  " — viz.  the 
pasterns — "  be  not  too  erect,  like  those  of  the  goat ;  for  legs  of 
this  kind,  being  stiff  and  inflexible,  are  apt  to  jar  the  rider,  and 
are  more  liable  to  inflammation.  The  bones  must  not,  however, 
be  too  low  and  springy,  for  in  that  case  the  fetlocks  are  liable 
to  be  abraded  and  wounded,  if  the  horse  be  galloped  over  clods 
or  stones.  The  bones  of  the  shanks" — the  cannon  bones — 
"  should  be  thick,  for  these  are  the  columns  which  support  the 
body  ;  but  they  should  not  have  the  veins  and  flesh  thick,  like- 
wise. For,  if  they  have,  when  the  horse  shall  be  gallopped  in 
difficult  ground,  they  will  necessarily  be  filled  with  blood,  and 
will  become  varicose,  so  that  the  shanks  will  be  thickened,  and 
the  skin  be  distended  and  relaxed  from  the  bone  ;  and,  when 
this  is  the  case,  it  often  follows,  that  the  back  sinew  gives  way 
and  renders  the  horse  lame.  But  if  the  horse,  when  in  action, 
bend  his  knees  flexibly  at  a  walk,  you  may  judge  that  he  will 
have  his  legs  flexible  when  in  full  career ;  for  all  horses  as  they 
increase  in  years,  increase  in  the  flexibility  of  the  knee.  And 
flexible  goers  are  esteemed  highly,  and  with  justice  ;  for  such 
horses  are  much  less  liable  to  blunder  or  to  stumble  than  those 
which  have  rigid,  unbending  joints.  But  if  the  arms,  below  the 
shoulder  blades,  be  thick  and  muscular,  they  appear  stronger 
and  handsomer,  as  is  the  case  also  with  a  man.  The  breast  also 
should  be  broad,  as  well  for  beauty  as  for  strength,  and  because 
it  causes  a  handsomer  action  of  the  forelegs,  which  do  not  then 
interfere,  but  are  carried  wide  apart.  And  again,  the  neck 
ought  not  to  be  set  on,  like  that  of  a  boar,  horizontally  from  the 
chest ;  but,  like  that  of  a  game-cock,  should  be  upright  toward 
the  crest,  and  slack  toward  tlie  flexure  ;  and  the  head  being  long, 
should  have  a  small  and  narrow  jawbone,  so  that  the  neck  shall 
be  in  front  of  the  rider,  and  that  the  eye  shall  look  down  at 
what  is  before  the  feet.  A  horse  thus  made  will  be  the  least 
likely  to  run  violently  away,  even  if  he  be  very  high-spirited, 


POINTS    OF    THE    GREEK    HORSE.  37 

for  horses  do  not  attempt  to  run  awaj  by  bringing  in,  but  bj 
thrusting  out,  their  heads  and  necks.  It  is  also  very  necessary 
to  observe,  whether  the  mouth  be  fine  or  hard  on  both  sides, 
or  on  one  or  the  other.  For  horses,  which  have  not  both  jaws 
equally  sensitive,  are  likely  to  be  hard-mouthed  on  one  side  or 
the  other.  And  it  is  better  that  a  horse  should  have  prominent 
than  hollow  eyes,  for  such  a  one  will  see  to  a  greater  distance. 
And  widely  opened  nostrils  are  far  better  for  respiration  than 
narrow,  and  they  give  the  horse  a  fiercer  aspect ;  for  when  one 
stallion  is  enraged  against  another,  or  if  he  become  angry  while 
being  ridden,  he  expands  his  nostrils  to  their  full  width.  And 
the  loftier  the  crest,  and  the  smaller  the  ears,  the  more  horse- 
like and  handsome  is  the  head  rendered  ;  while  lofty  withers 
give  the  rider  a  surer  seat,  and  produce  a  firmer  adhesion  be- 
tween the  body  and  shoulders.  A  double  loin  is  also  softer  to 
sit  upon  iiiid  pleasanter  to  look  upon,  than  if  it  be  single  ;  and 
a  deep  side,  rounded  toward  the  belly,  renders  the  horse  easier 
to  sit,  and  stronger,  and  more  easy  to  be  kept  in  condition  ;  and 
the  shorter  and  broader  the  loin,  the  more  easily  will  the  horse 
raise  his  fore-quarters,  and  collect  his  hind-quarters  under  him, 
in  going.  These  points,  moreover,  cause  the  belly  to  appear 
the  smaller  ;  which,  if  it  be  large,  at  once  injures  the  appearance 
of  the  animal  and  renders  him  weaker,  and  less  manageable, 
Xhe  quarters  should  be  broad  and  fleshy,  in  order  to  correspond 
with  the  sides  and  chest,  and,  should  they  be  entirely  firm  and 
solid,  they  would  be  the  lighter  in  the  gallop,  and  the  horse 
would  be  the  speedier.  But  if  he  should  have  his  buttocks 
separated  under  the  tail  by  a  broad  line,  he  will  bring  his  hind 
legs  under  him,  with  a  wider  space  between  them ;  and  so 
doing  he  will  have  a  prouder  and  stronger  gait  and  action,  and 
will,  in  all  respects,  be  the  better  on  them,  A  proof  of  which 
is  to  be  had  in  men,  who,  when  they  desire  to  raise  any  thing 
from  the  ground,  attempt  it  by  straddling  theii-  legs,  not  by  bring- 
ing them  close  together.  Stallions  should  not  have  the  testes 
large,  and  this  ought  not  to  be  overlooked  in  foals.  To  con- 
clude, in  regard  to  the  lower  joints,  of  the  shanks,  namely,  and 
the  fetlocks  and  the  hoofs,  behind,  I  have  the  same  remarks  to 
make,  and  no  others,  than  those  which  I  have  made  above." 
In  reference  to  this  passage,  I  would  remark  that,  although 


38  THE    HORSE. 

it  cannot  be  denied  that  all  the  points  are  correctly  stated,  and 
the  reasons  for  preference  clearly  and  truly  laid  down,  no  one, 
at  all  conversant  with  the  horse,  can  fail  to  perceive,  that  the 
whole  advice  points  to  the  acquisition,  as  the  most  admirable 
piece  of  horse-flesh,  of  a  short,  round-barrelled,  stocky,  active 
beast,  well  upon  his  legs,  with  his  hocks  fairly  under  him,  with 
a  lofty  crest  and  somewhat  heavy  forehand,  though  he  insists 
on  high  withers. 

In  short,  his  ideal  of  the  horse  is  the  very  horse  of  the  Elgin 
niarbles,  something  closely  allied  to  the  improved  English  road- 
ster of  the  last  half  century,  an  animal  framed  for  strength 
combined  with  hardiness  and  quickness,  but  wholl}'"  destitute, 
or,  if  not  wholh^,  nearly  so,  of  blood,  stride,  or  speed. 

In  the  Greek  horse,  as  in  that  of  Assyria,  it  is  very  evident, 
that  there  was  little  or  nothing  of  what  we  call  blood,  or  affinity 
to  the  Arab  and  Barb,  as  they  now  exist,  in  their  native  land, 
much  less  to  the  improved  strain  of  the  English  and  American 
thoroughbred. 

This  brings  us  fairly  to  the  Koman  horse  ;  and  here  we  find 
the  same  inferiority  of  the  animal,  and  of  the  art  or  habit  of 
using  him,  as  among  the  Greeks,  only  in  a  yet  greater  degree. 
In  the  early  ages  of  the  republic,  the  cavalry  of  the  Roman 
armies  w^as  composed  of  the  youths  of  the  monetary  aristocracy, 
who  served  on  horseback  partially  at  their  own  expense,  enjoy- 
ing in  consequence  certain  privileges,  and  exemptions,  and  a 
positive  rank  in  the  state,  second  only  to  the  patrician  senators 
and  the  holders  of  senatorial  ofiices.  These  men,  who  were 
termed  equites  or  horsemen,  a  word  which  has  been  universally 
and  erroneously  rendered  knights^  giving  a  false  idea  of  the 
character  and  nature  of  the  order,  as  if  the  members  of  it  were 
a  chivalric  fraternity  bound  by  a  vow,  instead  of  a  political 
class,  owed  their  origin,  it  is  said,  to  Romulus ;  who  instituted 
three  centuries  of  youths,  whom  he  called  celeres,  serving  on 
horseback  and  acting  as  his  body  guard.  Their  number  would 
appear  to  have  been  increased  nearly  at  the  end  of  the  mon- 
archy, by  the  Servian  constitutions,  from  three,  to  about  eighteen 
hundred  :  and  all  these,  the  select  men  of  a  wealthy  class,  were 
bound  to  serve  mounted,  at  their  own  charge,  wlien  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  public  service  did  not  allow  a  horse  to  be  given  them, 


ROMAN    CAVALRY    SERVICE.  39 

as  it  ordinarily  was,  by  the  state.  Subsequently,  every  person 
who  came  into  the  possession  of  a  fortune  of  400,000  asses,^ 
became,  ecc  ipso  facto,  an  eques,  and  was  liable  to  do  cavalry 
duty.  A  sufficiently  absurd  plan,  one  would  gay,  for  the  or- 
ganization of  an  effective  body  of  troopers  ;  who,  if  any  troops 
in  the  world,  require  minute  drilling,  constant  exercise,  and  the 
closest  habitude  as  well  to  horsemanship,  as  to  the  use  of  arms. 

The  truth  is,  that  the  Romans  were  in  no  respect  an  eques- 
trian people,  even  while  their  armies  consisted  mainly  of  agri- 
culturists and  tillers  of  the  ground.  We  find,  comparatively, 
few  notices  of  the  horse  among  their  classic  writers,  and  sucli 
as  we  do  find  principally  imitated  from  the  early  Greek  Poets, 
who  wrote  of  a  state  of  warfare,  Asiatic  rather  than  European. 
From  such  brief  and  scattered  mentions  of  the  horse,  however, 
as  we  have,  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  native  breed  of  this 
animal  was  of  no  excellence  ;  and  that  it  was  usual  to  seek  the 
superior  breeds  of  Calabria  and  Lucania,  where  the  population, 
being  more  or  less  of  Greek  origin  or  connected  with  the  Greeks, 
had  in  some  degree  the  equestrian  tastes,  and  perhaps  the  same 
strain  of  blood  with  their  ancestry. 

In  no  instance  had  a  Eoman  consular  army,  which  consisted 
of  two  legions,  of  four  thousand  two  hundred  infantry  each, 
above  six  hundred  horse  ;  a  proportion  ludicrously  inefficient, 
being  exactly  as  one  mounted  man  to  fourteen  infantry  soldiers ; 
whereas  the  true  ratio  is  one  cavalry  soldier  to  five  footmen — 
on  which  basis  the  famous  divisions  of  JN^apoleon  were  con- 
stituted. 

This  fact  speaks  volumes  for  the  poverty  of  the  Romans  in 
horses,  and  their  inaptitude  for  the  service  ;  and  still  more  does 
it  testify  to  the  same  thing,  that,  when  they  commanded  the 
alliance  of  the  Latin  states,  the  cavalry  of  the  two  contingent 
Latin  legions  was  double  that  of  the  Roman  quota.  This,  how- 
ever, only  raised  the  cavalry  attached  to  a  Roman  consular 
army,  in  the  time  of  the  second  Punic  war,  when  the  state  was 
making  every  exertion  to  resist  its  most  formidable  enemy,  who 
commanded  the  services  of  the  finest  horse  then  existing  in  the 
known  world,  to  eighteen  hundred  horse   attached  to  sixteen 

*  The  Roman  as  was  a  brass  coin  of  the  value  of  a  fraction  more  than  a  cent. 


40  THE    HOKSi:. 

tliousand  eight  liundred  foot,  or  a  ratio  of  about  one  of  the 
former  to  nine  of  the  hitter. 

So  long  as  the  Romans  were  engaged  in  Italian  wars  only — 
though  from  the  above  facts  relative  to  the  constitution  of  the 
native  and  Latin  contingents,  when  the  nations  were  acting  in 
unison,  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  the  Romans  were  numeri- 
cally inferior  to  their  adversaries — they  aj)pear  to  have  been 
able  to  contend  with  them  on  equal,  if  not  superior  terms,  even 
with  this  arm,  in  the  field.  Plence,  we  may  argue  that  the 
horses  of  the  Italians  were  equally  bad  with  those  of  the 
Romans,  but  that  the  superior  vigor  of  the  Roman  man,  whe- 
ther on  foot  or  on  horseback,  prevailed. 

The  moihent  they  were  brought  into  contact  with  foreign 
cavalry,  Macedonic  and  Eplrotic  troopers,  mounted  beyond 
doubt  on  Tracian  and  Thessalian — that  is  to  say,  what  we  should 
now  designate  Turkish — hoi'ses,  under  Pyrrhus,  and,  yet  more 
distinctly,  with  Numidian  horse,  undoubtedly  pure  Barbs  of  the 
desert,  under  Hannibal,  the  inferiority  of  the  Italians  in  every 
thing  pertaining  to  equestrianism,  was  demonstrated. 

It  seems  almost  to  have  been  acknowledged ;  for  we  find 
that  Ctesar,  during  his  wonderful  career  of  Gallic  victories,  had 
no  Roman  horse  whatever  in  his  service,  but  relied  wholly  on 
the  cavalry  of  the  friendly  Gaulish  tribes  for  that  arm ;  and 
once  we  find  him,  when  doubtful  of  the  faith  of  his  auxiliaries, 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  mounting  the  legionary  infantry  on 
Gallic  horses. 

In  his  final  conflict  with  Pompey,  his  horsemen,  who  were 
unquestionably  Gauls,  as  indeed  were  a  large  share  of  his  le- 
gions, rode  through  the  high-born  Roman  horse  of  his  rival,  as  did 
the  British  heavy  cavalry  at  Balaclava  through  the  Russian 
dragoons,  as  if  they  had  been  lines  of  pasteboard. 

At  the  same  time,  Crassus  in  Asia  was  totally  defeated  and 
destroyed  by  the  oriental  horse  of  Parthia ;  a  fate  narrowly  es- 
caped a  few  years  afterwards,  by  that  consummate  soldier  Marc 
Antony,  and  escaped  only  by  dint  of  admirable  skill  and  bra- 
very ;  a  fate  not  escaped  by  Valerian,  or  by  that  great  captain, 
Julian,  or  by  any  other  Roman  Emperor  or  chief,  who  attempted 
to  contest  the  palm  of  victory  with  Italian  or  western  cavalry 
against   the   innumerable    and  indomitable  clouds  of  oriental 


THE    ITALIAN    HORSE.  41 

horse  ;  which  from  that  time  maintained  their  superiority  un- 
disputed, until  outdone  by  the  superior  offspring  of  their  own 
blood,  bred  on  British  and  American  soil,  by  the  aid  of  western 
enterprise  and  the  lights  of  western  science. 

Of  the  Italian  horse,  therefore,  it  may,  I  think,  safely  be  pre- 
dicated that  it  has  been  from  all  time,  what  it  is  now,  nearly  a 
worthless  animal. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  overlooked  in  the  history  of  the 
horse,  that,  how  little  soever  it  may  owe  of  blood  to  the  Komans 
directly,  the  race  throughout  all  western  Europe  is  probably  in- 
debted more  largely  to  those  world-conquerors,  indirectly,  than 
to  many  individuals  and  nations,  who  have  purposely  encour- 
aged the  production  and  aimed  at  the  improvement  of  this  no- 
ble animal. 

Their  constant  habit  of  guarding  and  garrisoning  one  con- 
quered province,  by  the  mercenary  or  subsidiary  contingents 
raised  from  another,  and  their  very  deficiency  of  indigenous 
horses,  leading  to  the  employment  of  the  best  equestrian  na- 
tions of  their  subjects  or  allies,  brought  about  a  constant  rota- 
tion of  breeds,  and  strains  of  blood,  in  all  the  provinces,  an  ad- 
vantage which  Italy  ^itself  did  not  share,  and  consequently  a 
constant  admixture  oJE"  the  native  with  the  best  imported  ani- 
mals. 

For  it  will  be  remembered  that  the  Barbaric  tribes  all  rode 
perfect  stallions ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted,  but  that  the  native 
mares  would  be  brought  into  constant  familiarity  and  connec- 
tion with  the  foreigners. 

Whence  came  originally  the  Gaulish  and  British  stock,  is, 
as  I  have  above  mentioned,  doubtful.  There  are  some  reasons 
for  believing  the  horse  to  have  been  indigenous  to  Great  Britain, 
and  possibly  to  Gaul  also.  It  is  quite  as  probable,  however, 
that  this  race  may  have  been  introduced  into  France  by  eques- 
trian tribes,  migrating  to  the  northward  of  the  Alps,  as  we  know 
that  tribes  did  migrate,  from  the  plains  of  Scythia,  Thrace,  and 
Carpathia,  and  thence  introduced  across  the  channel  to  England, 
where  they  were  found  by  Csesar. 

Certain  it  is,  at  all  events,  that,  when  the  Belgic,  Celtic, 
Germanic,  and  Britannic  tribes  were  first  known  to  the  Romans, 
they  were  all  possessed  of  numerous  and  formidable  cavalries  ; 


42  THE    HOR8K. 

that,  although  inferior  to  tlie  Koinans,  as  barbarians  to  highly- 
civilized  men,  in  science,  discipline  and  military  skill,  they  were 
superior  to  them  individually  in  equestrian  prowess  :  and,  I 
think  it  is  fair  to  infer,  in  the  strain  of  their  equine  blood,  like- 
wise ;  since  Ave  lind  that,  although  to  the  end  of  their  real  great- 
ness the  Romans  constantly  preferred  the  use  of  native  infantry, 
they  as  constantly  employed  foreign,  that  is  to  say  Gaulisli,  Ger- 
man, Tracian,  Spanish  and  Numidian  horse  squadrons. 

It  is  certain,  therefore,  that  all  the  western  provinces  of  the 
republic  and  empire,  were  at  some  time  or  other  successively 
garrisoned  by  cavalry  squadrons  of  all  these  nations,  and  that 
their  native  horses  were  more  or  less  crossed  and  improved  by 
the  blood  of  all. 

It  has  always  been  the  fashion  to  ascribe  the  excellence  of 
the  Spanish,  and  especially  of  the  Andalusian  blood,  to  the 
Arabic  invasion  of  Tarick  in  710  ;  but,  although  the  great 
benefit  derived  Trom  that  strain,  and  from  the  wise  encourage- 
ment given  by  the  refined  and  polished  Moors  to  this  branch  of 
national  power  and  greatness,  must  be  allowed,  I  look  much 
farther  back  for  the  source  of  blood,  whence  the  Spanish  horse 
derived  his  earliest  excellence.  , 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  wonderful  Carthaginian  fam- 
ily of  Barca,  the  greatest  and  last  of  whom  was,  in  my  estimate, 
the  greatest  soldier,  and  only  not  the  greatest  statesman,  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  was  domiciled  for  years,  as  conquerors,  and 
ruled,  almost  as  indigenous  sovereigns,  over  all  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  Atlantic  shores  of  Spain,  from  Carthagena  to  Cadiz, 
at  the  head  of  powerful  native  African  armies,  accompanied  by 
numerous  and  incomparable  forces  of  Numidian  cavalry,  the 
desert  Barbs  of  the  Nomadic  Moors  and  Arabs. 

It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  such  a  state  of  things  could 
have  existed,  among  a  warlike  and  equestrian  people,  without 
their  seeking  to  improve  their  own  horses  by  the  admixture  of 
the  foreign  blood,  the  superiority  of  which  they  could  not  fail 
to  perceive  in  the  shock  of  battle,  even  apart  from  the  casual 
intercourse,  which  must  have  occurred,  between  the  indigenous 
mares  and  the  strange  troop-horses. 

This,  doubtless,  was  the  first  cross  of  oriental  blood  upon  the 
Spanish  stock  ;  and  the  same  cross  must  also  have  taken  place, 


THE   SPANISH   HORSE.  43 

thougli  in  a  smaller  degree,  among  the  Gaulisli  liorseherds, 
during  the  six  months  occupied  by  Hannibal's  march  through 
their  country  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  Elione,  at  the  head  of 
eight  thousand  African  Barbs,  principally,  doubtless,  if  not  all, 
stallions. 

Exactly  at  the  time  when  this  ingrafted  blood  might  be  sup- 
posed to  be  in  process  of  deterioration,  in  consequence  of  in- 
breeding, and  perhaps  of  intentional  vitiation  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  Flemish  sires,  for  the  begetting  of  animals  capable  of 
bearing  the  men-at-arms  of  the  chiv^alric  ages  in  their  ponderous 
panoply,  opportunely  arrived  Tarik  with  his  hordes  of  desert 
horse  to  reinvigorate  the  depreciated  race. 

From  the  first,  in  all  probability,  of  these  intermixtures,  as 
well  as  from  the  horses  of  the  Thracian  and  German  troopers 
quartered  on  them  by  the  Roman  emperors,  the  British  horses 
of  the  old  stock,  as  found  by  the  Romans,  under  Cassivelan  and 
Caradoc,  directly  received  their  first  improvement.  Indirectly, 
we  know  that  they  did  so,  through  the  improved  second  Spanish 
cross,  introduced  largely  for  breeding  purposes  by  the  Saxon 
and  Norman  monarchs  of  the  southern  kingdom. 

Of  the  actual  Spanish  horse,  of  the  days  of  the  conquest  of 
South  America,  when  the  Spanish  horse  was  in  his  greatest  pu- 
rity and  perfection,  comes  the  wild  stock  of  the  South  American 
pampas,  and  of  the  southern  and  south-western  prairies  of  the 
United  States  ;  and  from  this,  to  a  certain  degree,  it  is  probable 
that  the  domesticated  stock  of  some  of  the  southern  States  has 
received  a  remote  cross  of  Andalusian  blood.  In  Louisiana, 
that  cross  was  obtained,  and  still  exists,  in  a  more  direct  form ; 
although  it  does  not  appear  that  the  blood  continues  to  be  dis- 
tinguishable, to  any  considerable  extent,  in  the  external  charac- 
teristics of  the  animal. 

I  trust  that  these  preliminary  observations  will  not  be  weari- 
some to  my  readers,  as  I  am  well  assured  that  they  are  of  some 
importance  to  my  subject ;  bearing  on  a  point,  as  they  do,  in 
the  history  of  the  English  and  American  horse,  which  has  been 
scarcely,  I  think,  sufficiently  considered — the  admixture  of  old 
indigenous  blood,  which  it  cannot  be  denied  does  in  some  sort, 
though  in  an  infinitesimal  degree,  exist  in  what  is  esteemed  the 
purest  and  most  perfect  thoroughbred  strain — and,  secondly, 


44  THE   HORSE. 

what  is  that  indigenous  blood,  as  it  is  styled,  and  how  far  it  is 
impure,  how  far  traceable  to  a  warm  oriental  or  African  origin, 
in  remote  antiquity.  It  has  generally  been  assumed  that  the 
British  horse,  with  which  only  I  have  henceforth  to  do,  as  the 
origin  of  the  American  blood-horse,  until  I  come  to  speak  of 
him  directly,  was  an  utterly  unimproved  and  worthless  animal 
until  the  comparativelj^  modern  times,  when  his  blood  was  first 
gradually  mixed  by  the  monarchs  of  the  Saxon  dynasty,  and 
afterward  by  the  Norman  invaders  and  crusaders,  with  Arabian, 
Syrian,  Andalusian,  and  African  strains. 

I  hold,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  British  horse,  as  originally 
found  by  Csesar,  was  itself  of  Eastern  European  descent,  from 
Scythia,  Thrace  or  Carpathia — for  I  disbelieve  in  the  aboi'iginal 
theory — though  I  admit  that  I  have  no  proof  of  the  fact,  and 
argue  only  on  probability  and  analogy.  But  I  am  confident, 
and  regard  it  as  historically  made  out,  that,  at  a  very  early  pe- 
riod of  the  Roman  occupation,  it  must  have  been,  and  was, 
largely  tinctured  with  the  blood  of  the  best  Spanish  and  Gallic 
chargers  ;  the  former  of  which  could  scarcely  be  less  than  half, 
or  three-part  Barbs,  and  the  latter  of  which  partook  of  the  same 
strain. 

There  could  scarcely  also  fail  to  be  another  direct  cross  from 
Thrace  or  Scythia,  though  it  cannot  exactly  be  established  that 
such  was  the  case  ;  the  rather  that  more  than  one  of  the  most 
warlike  and  victorious  of  the  Roman  emperors  made  the  island 
their  residence. 

I  now  come  to  the  natural  history  of  the  horse,  which  I 
propose  to  treat  briefly,  principally  through  quotations  from 
Winter  and  Youatt  on  the  horse,  who  may  be  pronounced  un- 
hesitatingly the  best  authorities  on  the  subject,  before  proceed- 
ing to  treat  of  the  various  distinct  families  of  the  animal,  and 
first,  as  noblest,  of  the  English  blood-horse. 

"  Natural  historians,"  says  Mr.  Winter,  "  in  their  endeavors 
to  arrange  the  varjnng  objects  of  animated  nature,  class  the 
horse  and  its  congeners  in  the  following  manner  : 

"  Division.   Yertehrata — possessing  a  back-bone. 

"  Class.       Mammalia — such  as  give  suck. 

"  Trlbe.        Ungulata — ^lioofed. 

"  Order.      Pachydermata — thick-skinned. 


SYNONYMKS    OF   THE    HORSE.  45 

"  Family.  SoUpeda — nncJ eft-footed. 
"  (tenus.  Equus — the  horse  family. 
"  A  considerable  discrepancy  has  arisen  among  naturalists 
on  the  classification  of  this  animal ;  but  the  above  certainly 
appears  the  least  objectionable  that  can  be  found.  The  Linnrean 
system  was  certainly  unsatisfactory.  Linnaeus  classed  the  horse 
with  the  hippopotamus,  to  form  a  genus  in  order  Bellu^e.  By 
Erxleben  he  is  placed  between  the  elephant  and  the  dromedary. 
Storr  was  the  first  to  form  a  distinct  order  of  the  equine  family ; 
he  placed  it  immediately  after  that  of  the  Ruminantia,  under 
the  appellation  of  SoUjpedes.  Cuvier  adopted  his  arrangement, 
but  subsequently  placed  this  genus  among  the  Pachydermata, 
which  is  probably  the  most  judicious  classification  attainable. 

"  Dental  formula. — ^Incisors,  |  ;  canine,  in  the  male  only, 
I  \  ;  molars,  |  =  40. 

"With  the  horse  are  ranked  all  those  quadrupeds  whose 
generic  distinction  is  the  undivided  hoof— the  equine  genus. 
Equus  Cabalhis,  the  horse. 

Equus  Hemionus,  of  Pallas,  the  dziggtai,  Asiatic. 
Equus  Zehra,  the  zebra.  ] 

Equus  BurchelU,  I  South  African. 

Equus  Quagga,  the  Quagga.    j 
Equus  Asinus,  the  ass. 

"  THE    HORSE. 

"  Synonymes— "l7r7ro9,  Greek  ;  Equus,  Latin  ;  Pferd,  Ger- 
man ;  Eaard,  Dutch  ;  Jlest,  Danish ;  Bcist,  Swedish  ;  Cheval, 
French  ;  Cm'allo,  Italian ;  CaialJo,  Spanisli  ;  Zoschad,  Eussian  ; 
Eon,  Polish  ;  Sukh,  Turkish  ;  ETi/sdji,  Syriac ;  Eomn,  Arabic  ; 
Al,  Toorkman  ;  3la,  Siamese ;  Eur  or  Fur,  Bornou  ;  Soudah, 
Bezharmi ;  Bilsah,  Mandara  ;  Barree,  Timbuctoo  ;  As,  Pus- 
too.* 

"  The  horse,  by  far  the  noblest  of  the  genus,  is  easily  distin- 
guishable from  the  rest  of  the  group.  His  varieties  are  exceed- 
ingly numerous  and  difter  widely  in  physical  appearance.  The 
effects  of  climate  and  othpr  agencies  are  displayed  on  his  frame. 
Zimmerman  asserted,  but  without  very  evident  reason,  that  he 

*  Dr.  Skinner  traces  the  English  word  horse  from  the  Belgic  ros  or  the  Teuto- 
nic ro«z. 


46  TIIK    HORSE. 

arrived  at  the  greatest  perfection  between  the  15th  and  55th 
degrees  of  nortliern  latitude.  The  mare  is  found  capaldc  of 
generating  her  species  as  early  as  the  second  year  of  her  exist- 
ence ;  but  it  is  detrimental  to  her  form,  and  the  future  energy 
of  her  offspring,  thus  prematurely  to  tax  the  productive  powers 
of  her  frame.  It  would  be  far  more  profitable  to  delay  this  im- 
portant function  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  year,  when  the  outline 
of  her  form  approximates  more  closely  to  the  adult,  and  the 
vital  energies  of  the  animal  economy  become  more  confirmed. 
Mares,  in  common  with  the  females  of  many  other  quadrupeds, 
are  subject  to  a  periodicjil  appetency  for  the  male,  which  in 
them  is  termed  horsing.  The  natural  season  of  its  first  occur- 
rence is  from  the  end  of  March  to  July,  and  so  providential  is 
this  arrangement,  that  the  foal  will  be  produced  at  a  time  when 
nourishment  will  be  plentiful  for  its  support. 

"  Common  assertion  fixes  the  period  of  gestatioii,  or  the  time 
intervening  between  conception  and  foaling,  at  eleven  months  ; 
but  whether  calendar  or  lunar  months  are  to  be  understood  is 
not  explained.  This  discrepancy  will  appear  the  more  unsatis- 
factory when  it  is  recollected  that  eleven  calendar  months  want 
but  two  days  of  twelve  lunar  ones.  No  attempt  has  been  made 
in  this  country  to  resolve  the  question.  In  France,  M,  Tessier 
endeavored  to  arrive  at  some  degree  of  correctness  as  to  tlie 
average  time  of  gestation  by  registering  a  large  number  of 
mares.  He  proved  that  the  term  of  eleven  calendar  months 
was  often  exceeded  by  several  weeks,  and  sometimes,  though 
less  frequently,  j^arturition  took  place  within  that  period. 

"  '  In  582  mares,  which  copulated  but  once,  the  shortest  pe- 
riod was  287  days,  and  the  longest  419  ;  making  the  extraor- 
dinary difference  of  182  days,  and  of  82  beyond  the  usual  term 
of  eleven  months.'     Blaine's  Yet.  Outlines. 

"  On  another  occasion  an  account  was  kept  of  the  duration 
of  pregnancy  of  101  mares.     Of  these  : 
3  foaled  in  311  days. 


"  314  days. 

"  325  days. 

"  326  days. 

"  330  days. 

47 

"  from  340  to  350  days. 

PARTURITION.  4rY 

25  foaled  in  troin  350  to  300  days. 
21       "        "   from  360  to  377  days. 
1       "        "   in  394  days. 

"Thus  the  extremes  varied  83  days,  while  the  average  was 
about  351,  or  fifty  weeks  one  day  each.  Some  breeders  enter- 
tain an  opinion  that  old  brood  mares  carry  the  foal  considerably 
longer  than  young  ones,  but  they  otfer  no  satisfactory  evidence 
in  corroboration  of  their  view. 

"  The  signals  of  approaching  parturition  are  enlargement  of 
the  external  parts  of  generation,  and  a  gummy  exudation  from 
the  orifice  of  the  teats.  Birth  generally  takes  place  within 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  appearance  of  the  latter  symptom. 
But  the  first  acts  as  a  warning,  by  preceding  it  for  several 
days. 

"  It  is  but  seldom  tliat  the  mare  requires  manual  assistance 
at  the  time  of  foaling,  which  generally  takes  place  without  dif- 
ficulty or  danger,  in  the  night.  The  mare,  unlike  the  generality 
of  quadrupeds,  foals  standing.  She  rarely  produces  twins, 
and  when  double  births  do  occur,  the  ofispring  almost  invari- 
ably die.* 

"  As  great  facility  of  motion  appears  to  have  been  designed 
by  nature  in  the  formation  of  the  horse,  many  physical  pecu- 
liarities conti-ibute  to  ensure  that  end.  A  bulky  pendulous 
■udder,  like  that  possessed  by  some  of  the  ruminantia,  would  be 
incompatible  with  that  quality.  The  mamma,  therefore,  is 
small,  and  furnished  only  with  two  teats,  which  supply  a  milk 
of  a  highly  nutritious  character,  and  possessing  a  larger  quan- 
tity of  saccharine  matter  than  any  other  animal  is  known  to  be 
endowed  with.f 

*  A  remarkable  exception  to  this  rule  are  the  bay  colt  Tweedledum  and  the  bay- 
filly  Tweedledee,  foaled  in  1823  by  Polymnia — by  Musician  out  of  Promise,  sister  to 
Partisan — to  Waterloo. 

The  filly  never  sucked,  but  was  fed  on  cow's  milk,  and  was  said  to  thrive  better 
than  the  colt. 

Both  these  animals  were  trained,  and  ran  with  some  credit ;  but  the  filly  is  not 
named  as  a  brood  mare,  and  I  find  no  mention  of  the  colt  as  a  stallion. 

f  Parmentier  submitted  the  milk  of  various  animals  to  chemical  examination, 
and  he  found  that  the  proportion  of  ingredients  contained  was  in  accordance  with 
the  following  table : 

Siigar — Mare's,  woman's,  ass's,  goat's,  ewe's,  cow's. 

Whey — ^Ass's,  mare's,  woman's,  cow's,  goat's,  ewe's. 


48  TlH'^    IIUK8K. 

" The  disproportionate  length  of  the  foal's*  legs,  which  is 
so  strikingly  up[)arent,  when  compared  with  those  of  the  adult 
animal,  is  thought  bj  some  naturalists  to  be  provided  by  pre- 
scient nature  to  enable  the  young  animal  to  keep  pace  with  its 
dam  during  flight  from  any  menacing  danger.  Linnaius  at- 
tempted to  ascertain  the  future  height  of  the  colt  by  admeasure- 
ment of  its  legs  ;  but  so  much  is  found  to  depend  on  the  quan- 
tity and  character  of  the  nutriment  with  which  it  is  provided 
during  tlie  important  period  of  its  growth,  that  little  reliance 
can  be  placed  on  early  experiments  of  this  kind.  The  historian, 
the  warrior,  and  the  horseman,  Xenophon,  had  long  ago  alluded 
to  the  same  subject  in  his  treatise  on  horsemanship.  '  I  now 
explain,'  said  he,  'how  a  man  may  run  the  least  risk  of  being 
deceived,  when  conjecturing  the  future  height  of  a  horse.  The 
young  horse  which,  when  foaled,  has  the  shank  bones  longest, 
invariably  turns  out  the  largest.  For,  as  time  advances,  the 
ehank  bones  of  all  quadrupeds  increase  but  little  ;  but  that 
^he  rest  of  the  body  may  be  symmetrical,  it  increases  in  pro- 
portion.' 

"  Puberty  commences  in  both  sexes  as  early  as  the  second 
year,  but  all  the  structures  continue  to  be  gradually  developed 
till  the  end  of  the  fifth  year,  by  which  time  the  changes  in  the 
teeth  arc  perfected,  and  the  muscles  have  acquired  a  growth 
and  tone  M'hich  give  to  the  form  the  distinctives  of  adolescence. 
It  is  during  the  term,  which  elapses  between  this  period  of  adult 
age  and  tliat  of  confirmed  virility,  that  a  farther  progressive 
change  takes  place  in  the  aninial  economy  ;  the  powers  of  the 

Cream — Ewe's,  woman's,  goat's,  cow's,  ass's,  mare's. 

Butter — Ewe's,  goat's,  cow's. 

Clieese — ^Ewe's,  goat's,  cow's,  ass's,  woman's,  mare's. 

"  He  could  not  make  any  butter  from  the  cream  of  woman's,  ass's,  or  mare's 
milk,  and  that  from  the  ewe  he  found  always  remained  soft.  From  their  general 
properties  he  divided  them  into  two  classes,  one  abounding  in  serous  and  saline  parts, 
which  included  ass's,  mare's,  and  woman's ;  the  other  rich  in  caseous  and  butyra- 
ceous  parts,  as  the  cow's,  goat's,  and  ewe's. 

*  "  The  word  foal  is  indiscriminately  applied  to  the  young  of  both  sexes,  but  as 
they  increase  in  age  they  are  distinguished  from  each  other  by  appropriating  the 
term  colt  to  the  male,  and  filly  to  the  female  ;  and  on  the  period  of  adolescence, 
about  the  fifth  year,  the  former  assuines  the  title  of  stallion  or  horse — gelding  if  cas- 
trated— and  the  latter  that  of  viare.  In  America,  the  word  colt  is  often  vrrongly 
used  for  foal,  as  applied  to  either  sex,  whereas  it  is  invariably  masculine. 


THE  HAIR   OF   THE    HOESE.  49 

whole  frame  continue  to  acquire  strength,  and  although  there 
is  no  farther  increase  in  heiglit,  the  parietes  of  the  large  cavities 
and  the  muscles  of  voluntary  motion  assume  a  finished  and  ro- 
tund appearance,  and  render  the  animal  more  capable  of  endur- 
ing continued  exertion  and  privation  ;  the  vital  endurance  and 
resistance  being  greater  than  during  the  period  of  adolescence. 
The  fire  and  expression  of  the  head,  the  spirit,  character  and 
disposition,  become  also  more  marked  toward  the  termination 
of  this  epoch. 

"  The  natural  period  of  decay  of  the  vital  powers,  senility 
and  mature  death,  may  be  conjectured  to  be  about  thirty 
years  ;  but  few  horses,  from  our  barbarous  treatment,  attain 
that  term. 

"  The  walk,  the  trot  and  the  gallop,  are  the  usually  well- 
known  natural  paces  of  the  horse  ;  but  the  fact  of  some  indi- 
viduals contracting  the  pace  called  the  amble,*  without  previous 
tuition,  has  induced  many  writers  to  regard  that  also  as  a  natu- 
ral method  of  progression. 

"  In  England  and  other  northern  countries,  on  the  approach 
of  mild  we'ather,  the  horse,  by  a  natural  process  analogous  to 
moulting  in  birds,  divests  himself  of  his  winter's  clothing  of 
long  hair,  and  produces  one  of  a  shorter  and  cooler  texture  ;  and 
again,  before  the  recurrence  of  cold  weather,  reassumes  his 
warm  and  lengthened  coat  to  protect  himself  from  the  inclem- 
ency of  the  approaching  season.  The  autumnal  f  change  is  not 
by  any  means  so  general  as  that  which  takes  place  at  the  com- 
mencement of  spring.  The  hair  is  not  so  completely  changed  ; 
only  a  portion  of  it  is  thrown  off,  and  that  which  remains,  with 
that  which  springs  up,  grows  long  and  is  adapted  to  the  tem- 
perature  of  the  atmosphere.  These  alternate  changes  are  not 
so  well  marked  in  countries  possessing  an  even  temperature,  nor 
even  are  they  so  plainly  seen  in  horses  kept  in  the  warm  atmo- 
sphere of  a  close  stable  all  the  year  round.  When  the  shedding 
of  the  coat  commences,  the  bulbs  of  the  old  hair  become  pale, 
and  by  the  side  of  each  a  small  black  globular  body  is  formed, 
which  is  soon   developed  jnto  the  new  hair.     Thus  the  matrix 

*  The  amble  is  neither  racking  nor  pacing ;  the  latter  of  which  is  beyond  doubt 
a  natural  pace. 

f  In  America,  at  least  in  the  northern  parts,  this  change  is  invariable. 
Vol.  T.— 4 


50 


THE   HORSE. 


of  the  new  hair  is  not  the  old  bulb,  but  it  is  based  in  another 
productive  follicle.  Tlie  long  hair  of  the  mane,  tail  and  fet- 
locks, is  not  shed  at  definite  periods  with  that  of  the  body,  but 
is  replaced  by  a  shorter  and  more  uniform  process.  The  hair 
of  the  mane  and  tail  Mill,  if  protected,  grow  to  an  almost  in- 
credible length. 

"  The  property  of  changing  the  color  of  the  hair  with  the 
season,  j)ossessed  by  many  animals  of  the  arctic  regions,  adapt- 
ing them  to  the  temperature,  is  also  manifested  in  the  horse, 
though  in  a  much  less  degree,  for  it  may  be  seen  that  when  con- 
stantly exposed  to  the  elements,  the  long  winter-coat  assumes  a 
much  lighter  hue  than  that  of  its  predecessor. 

"  The  horse,  in  common  with  many  other  animals,  is  pro- 
vided with  a  thin  sub-cuticular  muscle,  covering  the  shoulders, 
flanks  and  sides,  whose  use  is  to  corrugate  the  skin,  shake  off 
flies  and  dislodge  other  annoying  substances. 

"  The  sense  of  smell  is  so  delicately  acute  in  the  horse,  that 
perhaps  he  is  not  exceeded  in  this  function  by  any  other  animal. 
The  nose  is  provided  with  a  very  extensive  surface  for  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  olfactory  nerve,  by  the  curious  foldings  of  the 
turbinated  bones.  It  is  principally  by  means  of  this  faculty  he 
is  able  to  distinguish  the  qualities  of  the  plants  upon  which  he 
feeds,  and  to  reject  such  as  are  of  a  noxious  or  poisonous  de- 
scription. Nature,  said  Linnaeus,  teaches  the  brute  creation  to 
distinguish,  without  a  preceptor,  the  useful  from  the  hurtful, 
while  man  is  left  to  his  own  inquiries.  On  putting  the  fingers 
into  the  nostrils,  at  the  upper  and  outward  part,  they  pass  into 
blind  pouches  of  considerable  dimensions.  These  carious  cavi- 
ties have  nothing  to  do  with  smelling,  because  they  are  lined 
with  a  reflection  of  common  integument,  but  they  may  possibly 
be  of  use  in  mechanically  distending  the  external  entrance  of 
the  nostrils,  and  thus  materially  facilitate  respiration  during 
violent  exertion.  They  are  also  brought  into  use,  when  the 
animal  neighs  ;  and  the  Hungarian  soldiery*  slit  them  up  to 

*  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  preference  of  Arabs  for  the  mare  to  the  horse, 
for  warHke  purposes,  is  attributable  to  the  fact  that  they  do  not  neigh  when  they 
scent  the  vicinity  of  other  horses,  as  stalHons  invariably  do — the  Arabs  never  attack- 
ing, save  by  surprise.  Those  nations  which  fight  by  open  force  have  no  such  prefer- 
ence, but  mainly  use  the  stallion. 


HIS    EYES    AND    EARS.  51 

preclude  the  possibility  of  being  prematurely  discovered  to  the 
enemy  by  the  exercise  of  this  habit.  On  the  lower  part  of  the 
nostril,  toward  the  outer  edge,  may  be  seen  the  mouth  of  a 
small  tube,  which  conveys  the  tears  from  the  inner  canthus  or 
corner  of  tlie  eye.  It  opens  on  the  skin  just  before  it  joins  the 
lining  membrane  of  the  nose.  This  little  cavity  has  often  been 
mistaken,  by  unqualified  persons,  for  an  ulcer  common  in  glan- 
derous afitections,  and  the  poor  animal  has  frequently  fallen  a 
victim  to  the  error, 

"  Tlieir  eyes  are  large  in  proportion  to  those  of  some  other 
quadrupeds,  and  the  pupilar  opening  is  of  an  oblate  elliptic 
form,  with  its  long  axes  parallel  to  the  horizon,  thus  increasing 
the  lateral  field  of  vision.  Round  the  edges  of  the  pupil  is  a 
curious  fringe  of  deep  plum-colored  eminences,  supposed  to  be 
serviceable  in  absorbing  the  superabundant  rays  of  light  which 
may  be  transmitted  to  the  eye.  The  horse's  sight  is  excellent, 
and  although  not  regarded  as  a  nocturnal  animal,  he  can  distin- 
guish objects  at  night  with  great  facility.  There  are  but  few 
horsemen  w^ho  have  not  benefited  by  this  power,  when  the 
shades  of  night  have  fallen  around  them. 

"The  ears  are  comparatively  small,  but  the  conch  is  en- 
dowed with  extensive  motion  so  as  to  catch  the  sound  coming 
from  any  quarter.  Their  hearing  is  quick,  and  although  blind- 
ness is  so  destructively  prevalent  among  horses,  deafness  is 
exceedingly  uncommon.  During  sleep  one  ear  is  usually 
directed  forward,  and  the  other  backward ;  when  on  a  march  at 
night  in  company,  it  has  been  noticed,  '  that  those  in  the  front 
direct  their  ears  forward,  those  in  the  rear  backward,  and  those 
in  the  centre  turn  them  laterally,  or  across ;  the  whole  troop 
seeming  thus  to  be  actuated  by  one  feeling,  which  watches  the 
general  safety.'  In  contests  of  speed  the  ears  are  generally  laid 
backwards,  so  as  to  ofifer  no  opposition  to  the  rapid  progress  of 
the  animal.  It  must  be  evident  that  if  the  concave  surfaces  of 
these  organs  be  presented  forward,  they  would  gather  the  wind* 
and  slightly  impede  progression. 

"  The  difi'erent  vocal  articulations  to  which  the  horse  gives 

*  It  appears  to  me  more  probable  that  the  ear  is  deflected  backward,  merely  to 
avoid  the  inconvenience,  if  not  pain,  which  the  current  of  air,  generated  by  the 
horse's  own  velocity,  would  inflict  on  that  delicate  organ.  H.  W.  H. 


52  THE   HORSE. 

Utterance,  are  collectively  termed  neighing ;  but  some  variety 
of  intonation  may  be  discovered  in  the  expression  of  its  pas- 
sions; as,  for  instance,  the  cry  of  joy  or  recognition  dilfers 
markedly  from  that  of  desire  ;  and  anger  from  playfulness. 
The  females  do  not  neigh  so  frequently  nor  with  such  force  as 
the  males.  For  this  reason  it  is,  that  predatory  and  warlike 
tribes  prefer  mares,  as  being  better  adapted  from  their  silence 
for  surprises  or  reconnoitering.  Castration  is  known  to  have  a 
modulating  effect  on  the  voice.  M.  Herrissant  supposes  neigh- 
ing to  be  produced  by  the  vibration  of  two  small  triangular 
membranes  found  at  the  extremity  of  the  glottis.  In  the  ass 
and  mule  this  structure  is  wanting,  but  they  are  provided  with 
a  more  singular  apparatus.  Hollowed  out  of  the  thyroid  carti- 
lage is  a  small  concavity  over  which  is  stretched  a  membrane, 
similar  to  the  parcliment  on  the  head  of  a  drum.  When  air  is 
forced  behind  this  substance,  a  very  considerable  noise  is  pro- 
duced, though  from  the  absence  of  muscularity  the  vibrations 
are  without  modulation  and  consequently  dissonant. 

"  The  intellectual  character  of  the  horse  is  scarcely  excelled 
by  that  of  any  other  quadruped.  His  perceptions  are  remark- 
ably clear,  and  his  memory  excellent.  Attachment  to  those 
who  tend  him  with  kindness  forms  a  prominent  trait  in  his 
character.  The  feats  which  he  is  often  taught  to  perform  evince 
a  high  intellectual  capacity.  Travellers  in  the  desert  assure  us 
that  horses  possess  the  faculty  of  directing  their  course  to  the 
nearest  water  when  hard  pressed  for  that  necessary  article. 

"  Horses  swim  with  the  greatest  facility,  and  the  distances 
they  have  been  known  to  perform  in  the  water  exceed  our 
expectation.  A  horse  that  was  wrecked  off  the  coast  of  South 
America  swam  seven  miles  to  land,  and  saved  its  life. 

"  There  exist  some  important  differences  in  the  animal 
economy  of  the  equine  family  and  other  herbivorous  animals, 
which,  as  the  inferences  from  them  are  of  some  consequence,  it 
is  necessary  briefly  to  notice.  The  horse  naturally  requires  but 
little  sleep,  and  even  that  it  often  takes  standing.  In  a  state  of 
nature,  when  fodder  is  short,  to  support  itself  properly,  it  is 
compelled  to  graze  twenty  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  Rumi- 
nating animals  eat  with  greater  rapidity,  and  lie  down  to  chew 
the  cud.     Ti\e  horse  eats  no  faster  than  it  digests.     Digestion  in 


HI8    PROPERTIES.  53 

the  former  is  interrupted,  in  the  latter  continuous.  This  ex- 
plains why  the  horse  has  no  gall  bladder,  as  it  requires  no 
reservoir  for  that  necessary  fluid;  for,  as  fast  as  the  bile  is 
secreted  by  the  liver,  it  is  carried  to  the  intestines  to  perform 
its  important  action  on  the  chymous  mass.  The  stomach  of  the 
horse  is  also  remarkably  small  and  simple,  differing  widely 
from  the  capacious  and  complicated  structure  of  the  rumi- 
nantia ;  but  tlie  intestines  are  long  and  the  coecum  capable  of 
containing  a  large  quantity  of  fluid,  of  which  it  is  considered 
the  receptacle.  The  mamma  of  the  mare  is  by  no  means  so 
pendulous  and  bulky  as  that  of  the  cow.  The  horse's  feet,  from 
their  compact,  undivided  nature,  are  much  less  liable  to  injury 
during  fleet  exertion  than  those  of  the  ox.  All  these  circum- 
stances tend  to  establish  the  individuality  of  the  horse,  and  are 
so  many  proofs  of  admirable  design  for  the  purposes  to  which 
man  has  applied  him ;  for  without  these  peculiarities  he  would 
not  be  so  valuable  and  superior,  as  a  beast  of  continued  and 
rapid  motion,  and  would  consequently  occupy  a  very  inferior 
station. 

"  Linnaeus  asserted  that  the  male  horse  was  without  the 
rudimentary  mamma  invariably  found  in  the  males  of  other 
animals  ;  but  this  naturalist  was  mistaken,  for  they  may  be 
seen  on  each  side  of  the  sheath,  and,  although  of  no  possible 
use,  still  their  existence  preserves  the  uniformity  of  nature's 
operations. 

"  The  horse  and  zebra  possess  horny  callosities  on  the  inside 
of  the  fore-legs,  above  the  knees,  and  on  the  hocks  of  the  hind 
legs ;  the  ass  and  the  quagga  have  them  only  on  the  fore  ex- 
tremities. 

"  In  a  state  of  nature,  the  horse  is  purely  an  herbivorous 
animal,  but  under  the  restraint  wliich  domestication  imposes, 
his  habits  become  changed,  and  grain  and  dry  grasses  form  the 
principal  articles  of  his  diet.  Domestication  is  known  to  origi- 
nate many  diseases  totally  unknown  in  a  natural  state,  but  it 
appears  to  have  the  effect  of  augmenting  the  muscular  power 
of  the  animal  far  beyond  its  uncultivated  extent." 

From  this  brief  and  clever  synopsis  of  the  principal  peculi- 
arities natural  and  physical  of  the  horse,  regarded  merely  in  his 
generic  form  as  an  original  quadruped,  without  considering  his 


54  THE   H0K8E. 

varieties,  or  his  improvement  hy  culture,  I  proceed  to  give  from 
Mr.  Youatt  the  following  delineation  and  description  of  his 
external  structure,  and  subsequently  to  submit  from  the  best 
authorities  a  short  account  of  the  method  of  ascertaining  the 
age  of  the  horse,  with  an  explanation  illustrated  by  cuts  of  the 
structure  of  the  jaws  and  teeth,  and  of  the  arrangement  and 
changes  of  the  dental  system ;  which  ended,  I  shall  advance 
to  the  consideration  of  the  various  families  and  varieties  of 
this  noblest  of  the  quadruped  creation,  and  first,  as  noblest,  to 
the  improved  thorough-bred  horse  of  Great  Britain  and  North 
America. 


SKELETON    AND    STRUCTURE. 


55 


A  The  head. 

a  The  posterior  maxillary,  or  under  jaw. 

b  The  superior  maxillary,  or  upper  jaw ;  near  the  latter  is  a  foramen,  through  which  pass  th« 
nerves  and  blood-vessels,  which  chiefly  supply  the  lower  part  of  the  face. 

c  The  orbit,  or  cavity  containing  the  eye. 

d  The  nasal  bones,  or  bones  of  the  nose. 

e  The  suture  dividing  the  parietal  bones  below  from  the  occipital  bones  above. 

/  The  inferior  maxillary  bone,  containing  the  upper  incisor  teeth. 

B  The  seven  cervical  vertebra',  or  bones  of  the  neck. 

C  The  eighteen  dorsal  vertebra?,  or  bones  of  the  back. 

D  The  six  lumbar  vertebrae,  or  bones  of  the  loin. 

E  The  five  sacral  vertebrse,  or  bones  of  the  haunch. 

F  The  caudal  vertebrae,  or  bones  of  the  tail,  generally  about  fifteen  in  number. 

G  The  scapula,  or  shoulder  blade. 

n  The  sternum,  or  chest. 

1  The  costa?,  or  ribs,  seven  or  eight,  articulated  with  the  sternum,  and  called  the  true  ribs,  and 
ten  or  eleven  united  together  by  cartilage,  called  the  false  ribs. 

J  The  humerus,  or  bone  of  the  arm. 

K  The  radius  of  bone  of  the  forearm. 

L  The  ulna,  or  elbow.    The  point  of  the  elbow  is  called  the  olecranon. 

M  The  carpus,  or  knee,  consisting  of  seven  bones. 

N  The  metacarpal  bones.  The  large  metacarpal,  or  cannon  and  shank  in  front,  and  the  smaller 
metacarpal,  or  splent  bones,  behind. 

g  The  fore-pastern  and  foot,  consisting  of  the  os  suffraginis,  or  the  upper  and  larger  pastern  bone, 
with  the  sessamoid  bones  behind,  articulating  with  the  cannon  and  greater  pastern ;  the  os 
corona,  or  less  pastern,  the  os  pedis,  or  coffin  bone,  the  08  navioulare,  or  navicular  or 
shuttle  bone,  not  seen,  and  articulating  with  the  smaller  pastern  and  cofl&n  bones. 

h  The  corresponding  bones  of  the  hind  feet. 

O  The  haunch,  consisting  of  three  portions ;  the  ilium,  the  ischium,  and  the  pubis. 

P  The  femur,  or  thigh. 

Q  The  stifle  joint,  with  the  patella. 

Ji  The  tibia,  or  proper  leg-bone ;  behind  is  a  small  bone  called  the  fibula. 

S  The  tarsus,  or  hock,  composed  of  six  bones.  The  prominent  part  is  the  os  calcis,  or  point  of 
the  hock. 

T  The  metatarsals  of  the  hind  leg. 


56 


THE    HOKSE. 


These  beiug  the  anatomical  points  of  the  horse,  as  demon- 
strated by  the  skeleton,  I  proceed  to  give  what  may  be  called 
the  horseman's  points,  which  I  designate  on  an  outline  sketch 
of  that  fine  English  race-horse  Elis,  by  Langar,  out  of  Olivia, 
by  Sir  Oliver. 


The  muzzle. 

The  face. 

The  forehead. 

The  jowl. 

The  poll. 

The  crest. 

The  withers. 

The  windpipe  or  thrapple. 

The  back. 

The  point  of  the  shoulder. 

The  breast  or  chest. 

The  fore-arm ;  vulgo,  arm. 

The  knee. 

The  cannon  bones. 

The  fetlocks. 

The  small  pasterns. 

The  large  pasterns. 

The  hoofs. 

The  heels. 

The  elbow. 


u  The  girth. 
V  The  flank. 
w  The  sheath, 
so  The  scrotum. 
y  The  hocks, 
s  The  coronets. 
A  The  hip. 
£  The  croup  or  rump. 
C  The  dock. 
D  The  quarter. 
JE  The  thigh. 
F  The  hamstring. 
G  The  point  of  the  hock. 
//  The  loins. 
/  The  gullet. 
J  The  shoulder. 
K  The  arm  (proper). 
L  The  barrel  (the  ribs). 
J/  The  stifli'. 


AGE  OF  THE  HOESK.  57 


THE  AGE  AND  DENTAL  SYSTEM  OF  THE  HOESE. 

"  There*  is  some  difficulty  in  estimating  the  natural  average 
length  of  the  horse's  life,  for  many  obstacles  opi3ose  an  inquiry 
on  a  scale  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  be  satisfactory.  The  nu- 
merous evils  entailed  on  him  by  the  arduous  labors  and  the 
restricted  and  unnatural  habits  of  a  domesticated  state  tend 
greatly  to  abbreviate  '!ife.  *  *  *  From  these  and  other 
reasons  it  cannot  be  much  doubted  that  his  age  is  generally 
underrated.  Horses  are  most  erroneously  f  termed  aged^  on 
the  obliteration  of  the  marTc  from  the  lower  incisor  teeth,  which 
occurs  by  the  completion  of  the  eighth  year,  and  though  it  is 
far  from  being  the  natural  term  of  age  and  debility,  or  even  of 
decline  of  the  vital  energies,  it  too  frequently  happens  that,  by 
that  time,  bodily  infirmities  have  been  prematurely  induced  by 
over-exertion  of  their  powers. 

*  *  *  "  Horses  at  twenty  years  old,  are  often  met  with 
in  cases  where  the  least  humanity  has  been  bestowed  on  their 
management.  Eclipse  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-five ;  Flying 
Childers  at  twenty-six.  Burns'  mare  Maggie  attained  more 
than  twenty-nine  years  ?  Bucephalus,  the  celebrated  horse  of 
Alexander  of  Macedon,  lived  till  thirty.  The  natural  age  is 
probably  between  %  twenty-five  and  thirty  years.  A  faint  and 
uncertain  guide  is  found  in  the  register  of  the  ages  of  our  most 
celebrated  racing  stallions,  recollecting,  however,  that  several 
of  them  were  destroyed  on  becoming  useless  for  the  purposes 
of  the  turf.  The  united  ages  of  ninety-three  of  these  horses 
amounted  to  two  thousand  and  five  years,  or  rather  better  than 
twenty-one  and  a  half  years  each  horse." 

Here  follow,  in  Mr,  Winter's  text,  many  citations,  from  au- 

*  Winter  on  the  Horse,  p.  141. 

f  It  does  not  appear  to  me  that  the  error  lies  in  the  term,  but  in  the  misappre- 
hension of  it.  The  eight-year-old  horse  is  called  aged^  as  the  twenty-one-year-old 
man  is  said  to  be  of  age  ;  and  the  maturity,  not  the  decline,  of  his  age  is  implied. 
This  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  so  soon  as  he  is  aged  he  begins  to  carry  maximum 
weight,  which  he  carries /or  ever  after,  so  long  as  he  runs.  The  impossibility  of  defi- 
nitely ascertaining  his  years  after  that  term,  renders  the  farther  apportionment  of 
weight  for  age  impossible.  H.  W.  H. 

X  Whalebone,  by  Waxy,  out  of  Penelope,  own  brother  to  Whisker  and  Woful, 
covered  mares  at  twenty-four  years.  H.  W.  H. 


58  THK    IIOKSE. 

tliors  of  all  ages,  qualities,  and  conditions,  from  Pliny  down  to 
Mr.  Blaine,  relating  to  the  age  to  which  individual  horses  have, 
or  have  not,  attained  ;  and  some  speculations  regarding  the  age 
to  which  horses — situated  otherwise  than  they  are,  ever  have 
been,  or,  probably,  ever  will  be  situated — might  possibly 
attain. 

It  being,  however,  my  present  object  to  look  at  horses  as 
they  are,  I  shall  assume  the  maximum  average  age  of  the  horse 
to  be  twenty-five  years,  and  the  same  to  be  the  extreme  age  of 
the  working  horse.  Of  the  latter  twelve  will  be,  it  is  likely, 
about  the  average. 

How  you  shall  know  the  age  of  a  horse,  is  a  matter  of  ques- 
tion to  most,  of  dispute  to  many,  of  experience  to  all. 

By  the  teeth,  only,  in  my  judgment,  can  the  age  be  known 
certainly  /  and  by  them,  certainly,  only  until  the  ninth  year. 

By  certainly  I  mean  this — that  one  may  surely,  and  almost 
without  fail,  sa}^  that  this  horse  is  older  than  nine  years,  but  that 
he  cannot  possibly  say  how  mxicli  older. 

The  other  signs,  beyond  the  mai-k  of  the  teeth,  vary  with 
the  variation  of  circumstances;  and,  with  the  double  varia- 
tion, opinions,  or  judgments  as  they  are  called,  will  yet  farther 
difi'er. 

The  mark  of  the  teeth,  naturally,  is  invariable.  By  art  or 
rascality,  when  made  to  vary,  the  variation  to  a  practised  eye  is 
easily  discoverable.  That  mark  extends  to  the  eighth  year, 
surely,  and  no  farther. 

NATURAL   niSTOET. 

"  As  a  matter  of  civil  economy,"  says  Mr.  Winter,  in  his 
valuable  book  on  the  horse,  from  which  I  have  already  quoted, 
"it  is  important  to  judge  correctly  of  the  age  of  our  useful 
servant,  the  horse.  This  is  chiefly  accomplished  by  observing 
the  natural  changes,  which  occur  in  his  teeth,  the  ])eriods  at 
which  they  appear,  are  shed  and  replaced,  and  the  alterations 
in  their  form  and  markings. 

"  The  teeth  of  most  animals  offer  some  criterion  from  which 
their  age  can  be  estimated  with  more  or  less  accuracy.     *     * 
The  teeth  are  nearly  the  sole  indices  of  the  age  of  the  horse, 
ass,  elephant,  camel,  dog,  and  the  polled  varieties  of  the  ox  and 


THE   DENTAL   SYSTEM.  59 

sheep  ;  while  in  other  domesticated  animals,  as  the  elk,  deer, 
goat,  common  ox  and  sheep,  the  horns  also  present  legible  in- 
dications of  the  progress  of  time. 

"  Keference  to  the  teeth  to  ascertain  the  horse's  age  is  not 
by  anv  means  a  practice  of  recent  origin.  Xenophon,  in  his 
well-known  work  on  horsemanship,  allndes  to  it  as  an  estab- 
lished custom  nsed  in  the  selection  of  cavalry  for  the  Grecian 
armies ;  he  properly  advised  a  rejection  of  such  horses  as  have 
lost  the  dental  mark.  The  same  facts  are  subsequently  noticed 
b}^  Yarro,  Columella,  Yegetius,  and  other  Roman  writers. 

"The  horse,  when  full  mouthed,  possesses  forty  teeth — 
twenty  in  each  jaw.  They  are  nameH  from  their  use,  position 
and  character.  Those  in  the  front  of  the  mouth,  whose  office  it 
is  to  gather  the  food  when  grazing,  are  termed  incisors,  or  more 
properly  nippers.  They  are  twelve  in  number,  six  above,  and 
six  below ;  they  do  not  overlap-  each  other,  as  is  the  case  in 
man,  but  meet  in  a  broad  tabular  surface.  From  these  teeth  is 
principally  deduced  the  age  of  the  animal.  For  the  sake  of 
desci-iption,  they  are  usually  ranged  in  pairs,  as  they  appear, 
and  the  first  pair  is  called  the  central,  the  second  the  dividers, 
and  the  third  the  corner  nippers.  The  tushes  or  ccmines  come 
next,  one  above  and  one  below  on  each  side.  They  are  of  a 
jjointed  form,  and  are  convex  on  the  outer  side,  and  slightly 
concave  on  the  inner  surface.  They  scarcely  ever  appear  above 
the  gums  in  mares,  although  their  rudiments  may  be  discovered 
on  dissection,  imbedded  in  the  maxillary  bones.  They  are  con- 
sequently regarded  as  sexual  distinctives.  It  is  difficult  to  as- 
sign their  use  ;  their  position  precludes  the  possibility  of  their 
being  used  as  weapons  of  offence  or  defence.  They  may  be 
viewed  as  a  link  of  uniformity  so  commonly  traced  in  the  ani- 
mated world.  The  grinders  or  molars  are  twenty-four  in  num- 
ber. They  are  teeth  of  great  power.  By  them  the  food  is 
comminuted,  and  prepared  for  the  digestive  action  of  the 
stomach.  In  order  to  fit  them  for  their  office,  they  possess  ad- 
ditional interlayers  of  enamel,  which  prevent  their  too  rapid 
wear.  The  arrangement  and  number  of  the  horse's  teeth  may 
be  represented  by  the  subjoined  dental  formula. 

"  Incisors,  | ;  canines,  in  the  male  only,  \  ;  molars,  ^^^^^  40. 
In  common  with  most  animals,  the  horse  is  provided  with  two 


THE    HORSE. 


sets  of  teeth ;  those  appearing  first  are  known  as  the  tem/porary^ 
deciduous^  or  milk  teeth,  and  are  succeeded  by  the  permanent 
set.  On  comparing  tlie  different  magnitude  of  the  jawbones  of 
the  colt  and  the  adult  horse,  the  necessity  of  such  a  change  is 
at  once  apparent.  By  it  the  teeth  are  adapted  to  the  size  of 
the  maxillary  bones.  The  teeth,  from  their  peculiar  character 
and  mode  of  growth,  do  not  admit  of  any  material  increase  of 
dimension,  and  nature  was  therefore  forced  either  to  place  the 
large  permanent  teeth  in  small  and  disproportiona^te  jawbones, 
or  to  ada])t  the  size  of  the  teeth  by  displacement  to  the  growth 
of  the  bones  that  contained  them.  The  latter  jirocess  is  adopted, 
and  constitutes  one  of  those  remarkable  evidences  of  creative 
power,  with  which  the  living  frame  is  replete. 

"  Three  substances  enter  into  the  structure  of  the  teeth  ; 
1.  The  enamel.  2.  The  dental  bone,  or  ivory ;  and  3.  A  corti- 
cal envelope,  surrounding  the  fang.  The  enamel  differs  but 
little  in  chemical  constitution  from  the  osseous  body  of  the 
teeth,  and  that  principally  results  from  the  absence  of  animal 
matter  in  it.  It  ai3pears  closely  analogous  to  the  univalve  por- 
celainous  shells,  and  is  the  hardest  and  most  indestructible  sub- 
stance of  the  body.  The  dental  bone  is  distinctly  tubular  in 
structure,  as  was  first  demonstrated  by  Lenwenhoeck,  in  a  com- 
munication made  by  him  to  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of 
1GT8,  and  this  has  been  confirmed  by  the  late  microscopical  re- 
searches of  Purkinje  and  Muller.  These  tubuli  take  a  pci-pen- 
dicular  direction,  and  are  exceedingly  small,  but  capable  of 
absorbing  ink  by  capillary  attraction.  No  such  tubuli  have 
been  traced  in  the  enamel.  The  teeth,  both  incisors  and  grind- 
ers, are  being  constantly  worn  away  at  the  crown,  but  the  loss 
is  supplied  by  the  gradual,  continuous  and  equivalent  growth 
from  the  root.  The  horse's  teeth  are  sometimes,  but  not  fre- 
quently, subject  to  disease.  It  is  seldom  that  any  of  them  are 
lost  from  age,  as  is  the  case  with  man,  and  most  other  animals. 
Blaine,  in  his  Outlines  of  the  Veterinary  Art,  p.  40,  4th  edition, 
institutes  the  following  comparison  between  the  respective  ages 
of  man  and  the  horse. 

"The  constitution  of  horses  and  men  may  be  considered  as 
in  an  equal  degree  of  perfection  and  capability  of  exertion,  or. 
of  debility  and  decay,  according  as  youth  or  age  preponderates. 


5TRITCTTTRE    OF    TFFE    TKKTH.  61 

Tims,  the  first  five  years  of  a  horse  may  be  considered  as  equiv- 
alent to  the  first  twenty  in  man  ;  or  thns,  that  a  horse  of  five 
years  old  may  be  comparatively  considered  as  old  as  a  man  of 
twenty ;  a  horse  of  ten  years  as  a  man  of  forty ;  a  horse  o^f  fif- 
teen as  a  man  of  fifty ;  a  horse  of  twenty  as  a  man  of  sixty ; 
of  twenty-five  as  a  man  of  seventy ;  of  thirty  as  a  man  of 
eighty ;  of  thirty-five  as  a  man  of  ninety.  So  far  from  this 
comparison  being  in  favor  of  the  horse,  I  am  disposed  to  think 
it  is  too  little.  Horses  of  thirty-five  years  of  age  are  as  com- 
mon as  men  of  ninety,  provided  it  be  taken  into  account  that 
there  are  twenty  human  subjects  for  every  horse ;  and,  unques- 
tionably, a  horse  of  forty-five  is  less  rare  than  a  man  of  a  hun- 
dred and  ten." 

To  this  it  may  be  added,  that  the  early  English  racers  ap- 
pear to  have  been  more  addicted  to  longevity  than  those  of 
modern  days,  and  the  American  horse  generally  than  the  Eng- 
lish ;  probably  because,  in  the  former  case,  the  horse  was  not 
put  to  hard  work  until  his  powers  were  developed  by  an  advance 
toward  maturity.  Two  and  three  year  old  training  was  unknown 
until  a  recent  date  ;  and,  in  the  latter  case,  in  America,  horses 
generally  are  little  used  in  harness,  or  for  general  work,  until 
they  have  attained  to  five  or  six  years. 

We  now  proceed  to  consider  the  first  appearance,  and 
successive  changes  of  the  teeth,  with  the  marks  and  their  de- 
scriptions from  the  commencement  unto  maturity.  The  cuts 
and  letter  press  of  these  are  both  borrowed  from  Mr.  Touatt's 
admirable  work. 

"  Seven  or  eight  months  before  the  foal  is  rig.  i. 

born,  the  germs  or  beginnings  of  the  teeth  are 
visible  in  the  cavities  of  the  jaw^s.  At  the 
time  of  birth,  the  first  and  second  grinders  have 
appeared,  large,  compared  with  the  size  of  the 
jaw,  seemingly  filling  it.  In  the  course  of  seven 
or  eight  days  the  two  centre  nippers  are  seen 
as  here  represented.     Fig.  1. 

"  In  the  course  of  the  first  month  the  third 
grinder  appears,  above  and  below,  and  not  long 
after,  and  generally  before  six  weeks  have  expired,  another  inci- 
sor above  and  below  will  be  seen  on  each  side  of  the  two  first, 


t)2S  TI^^    MORSE. 

which  have  now  considerably  grown,  but  not  attained  tlieir  per- 
fect height.  This  cut  will  then  represent  the  appearance  of  the 
mouth.     Fig.  2. 

"  At  two  months,  the  centre  nippers  will  have  reached  their 
natural  level,  and  between  the  second  and  third  month  the  sec- 
ond pair  will  have  overtaken  them.  They  will  then  begin  to 
wear  a  little,  and  the  outer  edge,  which  was  at  first  somewhat 
raised  and  sharp,  is  brought  to  a  level  with  the  inner  edge,  and 
so  the  mouth  continues  until  some  time  between  the  sixth  and 
ninth  month,  when  another  nipper  begins  to  aj^pear  on  each 
side  of  the  two  first,  making  six  above  and  below,  and  complet- 
ing the  colt's  mouth  ;  after  which  the  only  observable  difi'erence, 
Fig.  2.  until  between  the  second  and  third  year,  is 

in  the  wear  and  tear  of  these  teeth. 

"These  teeth  are  covered  with  a  polished 
and  exceediugly  hard  enamel ;  indeed  it  is 
so  hard  that  it  almost  bids  defiance  to  the 
action  of  a  file.  It  spreads  over  that  por- 
tion of  the  tooth  wliicii  appears  above  the 
gum,  and  not  only  so,  but  as  they  are  to  be 
so  much  employed  in  nipping  the  grass,  and 
in  gathering  up  the  animal's  food,  and  in 
such  employment  even  this  hard  substance  must  be  gradually 
worn  away,  a  portion  of  it,  as  it  passes  over  the  upper  surface 
of  the  teeth,  is  bent  inward,  and  sunk  into  the  body  of  the  teeth, 
and  forms  a  little  pit  in  them.  The  inside  and  bottom  of  this 
pit  being  blackened  by  the  food,  constitute  the  mark  of  the 
teeth,  by  the  gradual  disappearance  of  which,  in  consequence  of 
the  wearing  down  of  the  teeth,  we  are  enabled  for  several  years 
to  judge  of  the  age  of  the  animal. 

"The  colt's  nipping  teeth  are  rounded  in  front,  somewhat 
hollow  toward  the  mouth,  and  present  at  first  a  cutting  surface, 
with  the  outer  edge  rising  in  a  slanting  direction  above  the  inner 
edge.  This,  however,  soon  begins  to  wear  down,  until  both  sur- 
faces are  level,  and  the  mark,  which  was  originally  long  and 
narrow,  becomes  shorter,  and  wider  and  fainter.  At  six  months 
the  four  nippers  are  beginning  to  wear  to  a  level. 

"  The  annexed  cut  will  convey  some  idea  of  the  appearance 
of  the  teeth  at  twelve  months.     The  four  middle  teeth  are  al- 


SUCCESSION    OF    THE    TEETH. 


63 


most  level,  and  the  corner  ones  are  becoming  so.  Tlie  mark  in 
the  two  middle  teeth  is  wide  and  faint,  in  the  two  next  teeth  it 
is  longer,  darker  and  narrower.     In  the  rig.  3. 

corner  teeth  it  is  longest,  darkest  and  nar- 
rowest. 


"  The  back  teeth  or  grinders  will  not 
guide  us  far  in  ascertaining  the  age  of 
the  animal,  for  we  cannot  easily  inspect 
them,  but  there  are  some  interesting  par- 
ticulars connected  with  them.  The  foal 
is  born  with  two  grinders  in  each  jaw, 
above  and  below,  or  they  appear  within 
two  or  three  days  after  the  birth.  Before  the  expiration  of  the 
month  they  are  succeeded  by  a  third,  more  backward.  The 
crowns  of  the  grinders  are  entirely  covered  with  enamel  on  the 
tops  and  sides,  but  attrition  soon  wears  it  away  from  the  top,  and 
there  remains  a  compound  surface  of  alternate  layers  of  crusted 
petraser,  enamel  and  ivory,  which  are  employed  in  grinding 
down  the  hardest  portion  of  the  food.  Nature  has,  therefore, 
made  an  additional  provision  for  their  strength  and  endurance. 
Fig.  4  represents  a  grinder  sawed  across.  The  live  dark  spots 
rej)resent  bony  matter ;  the  parts  covered  with  lines  enamel, 
and  the  white  spaces  a  strong  bony  cement  uniting  the  other 
portions  of  the  teeth. 

"  At  the  completion  of  the  first  year  a  fourth  grinder  usually 

soon  afterwards,  six 

Fis.  4. 


( 
^f^^ 


comes  up,  and  the  yearling  has  then,  or 
nippers  and  four  grinders  above  and  below 
in  each  jaw,  which,  with  the  alteration  in 
the  nippers  we  have  just  described,  will 
enable  us  to  calculate  the  age  of  the  foal, 
subject  to  some  variations  arising  from  the 
period  of  weaning,  and  the  nature  of  the 
food. 

"  At  the  age  of  one  year  and  a  half,  the  mark  in  the  central 
nippers  will  be  much  shorter  and  fainter  ;  that  in  the  two  other 
pairs  will  have  undergone  an  evident  change,  and  all  the  nip- 
pers will  be  flat.  At  two  years  this  will  be  more  manifest. 
The  accompanying  cut,  Fig.  5,  deserves  attention,  as  giving  an 


64 


THE   HORSE. 


accurate  representation  of  the  nippers  in  the  lower  jaw  of  a  two- 
year-ohl  colt. 

"  About  this  period  a  fifth  grinder  will  appear,  and  now  like- 
Fig.  5.  wise,  will  commence  another  process. 
The  first  teetli  are  adapted  to  the  size 
and  wants  of  the  young  animal.  They 
are  sufliciently  large  to  occupy  and  fill 
the  colt's  jaws,  but  when  these  bones 
have  expanded  with  the  increasing 
growth  of  the  animal,  the  teeth  are  sep- 
arated too  far  from  each  other  to  be 
useful,  and  another  and  larger  set  is 
required.  The  second  teeth  then  be- 
gin to  push  uj)  from  below,  and  the  fangs  of  the  first  are  ab- 
sorhed^  until  the  former  approach  the  surface  of  the  gum,  when 
they  drop  out.  Where  the  temporary  teeth  do  not  rise  imme- 
diately under  the  milk  teeth,  but  by  their  sides,  the  latter  being 
pressed  sideway  are  absorbed  throughout  their  whole  length. 
They  grow  narrow,  are  pushed  out  of  place,  and  cause  inconve- 
nience to  the  gums,  and  sometimes  to  the  cheek.  They  are  then 
called  wolfs  teeth,  and  they  should  be  extracted.* 

The  teeth  which  first  a])peared  are  first  renewed,  and  therefore 
the  front  or  first  grinders  are  changed  at  tlie  age  of  two  years. 
Fig.  6.  "  During  the  period  between  the 

falling  out  of  the  central  milk  teeth 
and  the  coming  up  of  the  perma- 
nent ones,  tlie  colt,  having  a  broken 
mouth,  may  find  some  difficulty  in 
grazing.  If  he  should  fall  away 
considerably  in  condition,  he  should 
be  fed  with  mashes  and  corn,  or 
cut  feed.  The  next  cut,  fig.  6,  will 
represent  a  three-year-old  mouth. 
"The  central  teeth  are  larger 
than   the  others,  with   two  grooves  in  the  outer  convex  sur- 

*  Note  by  Mr.  Spooner.  Although  irregularities  of  the  teeth  sometimes  occur, 
as  mentioned  in  the  text,  yet  the  wolf's  teeth  are  generally  two  small  supplement- 
ary teeth  appearing  in  front  of  the  molar  teeth  ;  and  though  supposed  to  have  an 
injurious  eflect  on  the  eyes,  we  have  rarely,  if  ever,  found  that  they  produce  any 


THEEE-YEAR    OLD    MOUTH.  (J5 

face,  and  the  mark  is  long,  narrow,  deep  and  black.  Not  having 
yet  attained  their  full  growth,  they  are  rather  lower  than  the 
others.  The  mark  in  the  two  next  nippers  is  nearly  worn  out 
and  it  is  wearing  away  in  the  corner  nippers. 

"is  itpossiUe  to  give  this  mouth  to  an  early  two-year-old  f 
The  ages  of  all  horses  used  to  be  reckoned  from  the  first  of  May, 
but  some  are  foaled  even  as  early  as  January,  and  being  actu- 
ally four  months  over  the  two  years,  if  they  have  been  well 
nursed  and  fed,  and  are  strong  and  large,  they  may,  with  the 
inexperienced,  have  an  additional  year  put  upon  them.  The 
central  nippers  are  punched  or  drawn  out,  and  the  othei-s  ap- 
pear three  or  four  months  earlier  than  they  otherwise  would. 
In  the  natural  process  they  would  only  rise  by  long  pressing 
upon  the  first  teeth,  and  causing  their  absorption.  But  opposi- 
tion from  the  first  set  being  removed,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  that 
their  progress  will  be  more  rapid.  Thi-ee  or  four  months  will 
be  gained  in  the  ai^pearance  of  these  teeth,  and  these  three  or 
four  months  will  enable  the  breeder  to  term  him  a  late  colt  of 
the  preceding  year.  To  him,  however,  who  is  accustomed  to 
horses,  the  general  form  of  the  animal,  the  little  development 
of  the  forehand,  the  continuance  of  the  mark  on  the  next  paii 
of  nippers,  its  more  evident  existence  in  the  corner  ones,  some 
enlargement  or  irregulai-ity  about  the  gums  from  the  violence 
used  in  forcing  out  the  teeth,  the  small  growth  of  the  first  and 
fifth  grinders,  and  the  non-appearance  of  the  sixth  grinder, 
which,  if  it  be  not  through  the  gum  at  three  years  old,  is  swell- 
ing under  it,  and  preparing  to  get  through— any  or  all  of  these  cir- 
cumstances, carefully  attended  to,  will  be  a  sufficient  security 
against  deception. 

"  A  horse  at  three  years  old  ought  to  have  the  central  perma- 
nent nippers  growing,  the  other  two  pairs  wasting,  six  grinders 
in  each  jaw,  above  and  below,  the  first  and  fifth  level,  the  others 
and  the  sixth  protruding.  The  sharp  edge  of  new  incisors,  al- 
though it  could  not  well  be  expressed  in  the  cut,  will  be  very 
evident  when  compared  with  the  old  teeth. 

"  As  the  permanent  nippers  wear  and  continue  to  grow,  a 

injurious  effect,  either  on  the  eyes  or  the  mouth,  and  consequently  it  is  useless  to 
interfere  with  them.     When,  however,  the  teeth  grow  irregularly,  the  permanent 
ones  appearing  by  the  side  of  the  temporary,  the  latter  should  be  removed. 
Vol.  I. — 5 


66 


THE    HOKSK. 


Earrow  portion  of  the  cone-shaped  tooth  is  exposed  by  the  at- 
trition, and  they  look  as  if  they  had  been  compressed,  but  it  is 
not  so.  Kot  only  will  the  mark  be  wearing  out,  but  the  crowns 
of  the  teeth  will  be  sensibly  smaller. 

"  At  three  years  and  a  half,  or  between  that  and  four,  the 
next  pair  of  nippers  will  be  changed,  and  the  mouth  at  that  time 
cannot  be  mistaken.  The  central  nippers  will  have  attained 
nearly  their  full  growth.  A  vacuity  will  be  left  where  the  se- 
cond stood,  or  they  will  begin  to  peep  above  the  gum,  and  the 
corner  ones  will  be  diminished  in  breadth,  worn  down,  and  the 
mark  becoming  small  and  faint.  At  this  period,  likewise,  the 
second  pair  of  grinders  will  be  shed.  Previously  to  this  may 
be  the  attempt  of  the  dealer  to  give  to  his  three-year-old  an  ad- 
ditional year,  but  the  fraud  will  be  detected  by  an  examination 
similar  to  that  which  has  been  already  described. 

"  At  four  years,  the  central  nippers  will  be  fully  developed  ; 
the  sharp  edge  somewhat  worn  off,  and  the  mark  shorter,  wider, 
fainter.     Tlie  next  pair  will  be  up,  but  they  will  be  small,  with  the 
mark  deep  and  extending  quite  across  them,  as  in  fig.  7.     Tlie 
Fig.  T.  corner  nippers  will  be  larger  than 

the  inside  ones,  yet  smaller  than 
they  were,  and  flat,  and  the  mark 
nearly  eifaced.  The  sixth  grind- 
ers will  have  risen  to  a  level 
with  the  others,  and  the  tushes 
will  begin  to  appear. 
(ii''l      ^^  \     /fiW  "  -^*^^^'  moYQ  than  at  any  other 

^^  ''■   ^^  '  ^'       time,  will  the  dealer  be  anxious 

to  put  an  additional  year  on  the 
animal,  for  the  difference  between 
a  four-year-old  colt  and  a  five-year-old  horse,  in  strength,  utility 
and  value,  is  very  great ;  but  the  want  of  wear  in  the  other  nip- 
pers, the  small  size  of  the  corner  ones,  the  little  growth  of  the 
tush,  the  smallness  of  the  second  grinder,  the  low  forehand,  the 
legginess  of  the  colt,  and  the  thickness  and  little  depth  of  the 
mouth,  will,  to  the  man  of  common  experience  among  horses, 
at  once  detect  the  cheat. 

"Tlie  tushes  are  four  in  number,  two  in  each  jaw,  situated 
between  the  nippers  and  the  grinders,  much  nearer  to  the  former 


FIVE-YEAR-OI.D    MOUTH, 


67 


tlian  the  latter,  and  nearer  in  the  lower  jaw  than  the  upper,  but 
this  distance  increases  in  both  jaws  with  the  age.  In  shape,  the 
tush  somewhat  resembles  a  cone  ;  it  protrudes  from  the  gum 
about  an  inch,  and  is  sharp-pointed  and  curved.  The  appear- 
ance of  this  tush  in  the  horse  may  vary  from  four  years  to  four 
years  and  six  months.  It  can  only  be  accelerated  a  few  weeks 
by  cutting  the  gum  over  it.  At  four  years  and  a  half,  or  be- 
tween that  and  five,  the  last  important  change  takes  place  in 
the  mouth  of  the  horse.  Tlie  corner  nippers  are  shed,  and  the 
permanent  ones  begin  to  appear.  The  central  nippers  are  con- 
siderably worn,  and  the  next  pair  are  commencing  to  show 
marks  of  usage.  The  tush  has  now  protruded,  and  is  generally 
a  full  half  inch  in  height ;  externally,  it  has  a  rounded  promi- 
nence, with  a  groove  on  either  side,  and  it  is  evidently  hollowed 
within.  The  reader  scarcely  needs  to  be  told  that  after  the  ris- 
ing of  the  corner  nipper,  the  animal  changes  its  name.  The 
colt  becomes  a  horse,  the  filly  a  mare. 

"  At  five  years,  the  horse's  mouth 
is  almost  perfect — fig.  8.  The 
corner  nippers  are  quite  up,  with 
the  long  deep  mark  irregular 
in  the  inside,  and  the  other  nip- 
pers bearing  evident  tokens  of  in- 
creased wearing.  The  tush  is 
much  grown ;  the  grooves  have  al- 
most or  quite  disappeared,  and  the 
outer  surface  is  regularly  convex. 
It  is  still  as  concave  within,  and 
with  the  edge  nearly  as  sharp,  as  it  was  six  months  before. 
The  sixth  molar  is  quite  up,  and  the  third  molar  is  wanting. 
This  last  circumstance,  if  the  general  appearance  of  the  animal, 
and  particularly  his  forehand,  and  the  wearing  of  the  centre 
nippers,  and  the  growth  and  shapes  of  the  tushes  be  likewise 
carefully  attended  to,  will  prevent  deception,  if  a  late  four-year- 
old  is  attempted  to  be  substituted  for  a  five-year-old.  The  nip- 
pers may  be  brought  up  a  few  months  before  their  time,  and 
the  tushes  a  few  weeks,  but  the  grinder  is  with  difficulty  dis- 
placed. The  three  last  grinders  and  the  tushes  are  never  shed. 
"  At  six  years — see  fig.  9 — the  mark  on  the  central  nippers 


68 


THE   HOKSE. 


is  worn  out.     Tliere  will  still  be  a  difference  of  color  in  the  cen- 
tre of  the  tooth.     The  cement  filling  wp  the  hole,  made  by  the 
Fig.  9.  dipping  of  the  enamel,  will  pre- 

sent a  browner  hue  than  the 
other  part  of  the  tooth,  and  it 
will  be  evidently  surrounded  by 
an  edge  of  enamel,  and  there 
will  remain  even  a  little  depres- 
sion in  the  centre,  and  also  a  de- 
pression round  the  case  of  ena- 
mel ;  but  the  deep  hole  in  the 
centre  of  the  teeth,  with  the 
blackened  surface  which  it  pre- 
sents, and  the  elevated  edge  of 
enamel,  will  have  disappeared.  Persons  not  much  accustomed 
to  horses  have  been  puzzled  here.  They  expected  to  find  a  plain 
surface  of  uniform  color,  and  knew  not  what  conclusion  to  draw 
when  there  was  both  discoloration  and  irregularity. 

"  In  the  next  incisors  the  mark  is  shorter,  broader,  and 
fainter,  and  in  the  corner  teeth  the  edges  of  the  enamel  are  more 
regular,  and  the  surface  is  evidently  worn.  The  tush  has  at- 
tained its  full  growth,  being  nearly  or  quite  an  inch  long,  con- 
vex outward,  concave  within,  tending  to  a  point,  and  tlie  ex- 
tremity somewhat  curved.  The  third  grinder  is  fairly  up,  and 
all  the  grinders  are  level. 

"  The  horse  may  now  be  said 
to  have  a  perfect  mouth.  All 
the  teeth  are  produced,  fully 
grown,  and  have  hitherto  sus- 
tained no  material  injury.  Du- 
ring these  important  changes  of 
the  teeth,  the  animal  has  suffered 
less  than  could  be  supposed 
possible. 

"  At  seven  years — see  fig. 
10 — the  mark,  in  the  way  in 
which  we  have  described  it,  is 
worn  out  in  the  four  central  nippers,  and  fast  wearing  away  in 
the  corner  teeth  ;  the  tush  also  is  beginning  to  be  altered.     It 


Fig.  10. 


SEVEN-YEAR-OLD   MOUTH. 


69 


is  rounded  at  the  point,  rounded  at  the  edges,  still  round  without, 
and  beginning  to  get  round  inside. 

"  At  eight  years  old,  the  tush  is  rounder  in  every  way ;  the 
mark  is  gone  from  all  the  bottom  nippers,  and  it  may  almost 
be  said  to  be  out  of  the  mouth.  TJiere  is  nothhu/  remaining 
in  the  hottom  nippers  that  can  aft^rxoard  clearly  show  the  age  of 
the  horse,  or  justify  the  most  experienced  examiner  in  giving  a 
positive  opinion  !  * 

"  Dishonest  dealers  have  been  said  to  resort  to  a  method  of 
prolonging  the  mark  in  the  lower  nippers.  It  is  called  Bishop- 
ing,  from  the  name  of  the  scoundrel  who  invented  it.  The 
horse  of  eight  or  nine  years  old — for  his  mouth,  see  fig.  11 — ^is 
thrown,   and  with  an    engra-  Fig.  il 

ver's  tool  a  hole  is  dug  in  the 
now  almost  plain  surface  of  the 
corner  teeth,  in  shape  resem- 
bling the  mark  yet  left  in  those 
of  a  seven-year-old  horse.  The 
hole  is  then  burned  with  a 
heated  iron,  and  a  permanent 
black  stain  is  left.  The  next 
pair  of  nippers  are  sometimes 
slightly  touched.  An  ignorant 
man  would  be  very  easily  deceived  by  this  trick ;  but  the  ir- 
regular appearance  of  the  cavity,  the  diffusion  of  the  black 
stain  around  the  tushes,  the  sharpened  edges  and  concave  inner 
surface  of  which  can  never  be  given  again,  the  marks  on  the 
upper  nippers,  together  with  the  general  conformation  of  the 
horse,  can  never  deceive  the  careful  examiner. 

"  Horsemen,  after  the  animal  is  eight  years  old,  are  accus- 
tomed to  look  to  the  nij^pers  in  the  upper  jaw,  and  some  conclu- 


*  I  have  myself  italicised  this  passage,  because  it  is  a  common  error  in  the 
United  States,  and  one  especially  insisted  on  by  dealers  having  old  horses  to  sell, 
that  the  age  can  be  positively  ascertained  even  to  ten,  eleven  or  twelve  years,  so 
that  it  can  be  predicated  of  a  horse  that  he  is  so  old  and  no  older  !  This  is  an  abso- 
lute fallacy.  It  is  easy,  from  many  general  signs,  to  see  that  a  horse  is  above  eight 
years  old,  but  impossible  to  judge  certainly  how  much  older !  The  length  and  an- 
gularity of  the  nippers,  the  depth  of  the  super-orbital  cavities,  and  other  points  of 
conformation,  may  enable  a  good  judge  to  gv£ss  comparatively,  but  never  to  speak 
surely.  H.  W.  H. 


TO  THE    HORSK. 

sion  has  been  drawn  from  the  appearances  which  they  present. 
It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  mark  remains  in  them  for  some 
years  after  it  has  been  obliterated  in  the  nippers  of  the  lower 
jaw. 

"  There  are  various  opinions  as  to  the  intervals  between  the 
disappearance  of  the  marks  from  the  different  cutting  teeth  of 
the  upper  jaw.*  Some  have  averaged  it  at  two  years,  some  at 
one.  The  author  is  inclined  to  adopt  the  latter  opinion,  and 
then  the  age  will  be  thus  determined.  At  nine  years  the  mark 
will  be  worn  from  the  middle  nippers,  from  the  next  pair  at  ten, 
and  from  all  the  upper  nippers  at  eleven.  During  these  periods 
the  tush  is  likewise  undergoing  a  manifest  change.  It  is  blunter, 
shorter,  and  rounder.  In  what  degree  this  takes  place  in  the 
different  periods,  long  and  favorable  opportunities  can  alone 
enable  the  horseman  to  decide.^ 

"  The  alteration  in  the  form  of  the  tushes  is  frequently  un- 
certain It  will  sometimes  be  blunt  at  eight,  and  at  others 
remain  pointed  at  eighteen. 

"  After  eleven,  and  until  the  horse  is  very  old,  the  age  may 
be  guessed  at  with  some  degree  of  confidence,  from  the  shape 
of  the  upper  surface,  or  extremity  of  the  nippers.  At  eight 
they  are  all  oval,  the  length  of  the  oval  running  across  from 
tooth  to  tooth  ;  but  as  the  horse  gets  older,  the  teeth  diminish 
in  size — and  this  commencing  in  their  width  and  not  in  their 
thickness.  They  become  a  little  apart  from  each  other,  and 
their  surfaces  become  round  instead  of  oval.  At  nine,  the  cen- 
tre nippers  are  evidently  so ;  at  ten,  the  others  begin  to  have 
the  oval  shortened.  At  eleven,  the  second  pair  of  nippers  are 
quite  rounded,  and  at  thirteen,  the  corner  ones  have  also  that 
appearance.  At  fourteen,  the  faces  of  the  central  nippers 
become  somewhat  triangular.     At  seventeen,  they  are  all  so. 

*  How  entirely  doubtful,  not  to  say  fallacious,  these  indications  must  be  held,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  attend  to  the  admitted  variation  of  the  best  opinions  on  the 
subject.  Mr.  Youatt  only  inclines  to  his  own  belief.  If  the  other,  by  chance,  be 
the  true  one,  his  nine-year-old  will  be  ten,  his  ten-year-old  eleven,  his  eleven-year- 
old  twelve.     Q.  E.  D.  H.  W.  H. 

f  The  very  next  sentence  shows  that  nothing  can  enable  any  one  to  decide. 
Since,  if  the  same  signs  are  occasionally  present  at  eight  and  at  eighteen  years,  de- 
cision is  impossible,  and  guess-work  must  be  no  more  than  vague  and  blind,  as  to 
what  these  signs  may  or  may  not  indicate.  H.  W.  H. 


INDICATIONS    OF    AGE.  71 

At  nineteen,  the  angles  begin  to  wear  off,  and  the  central  teeth 
are  again  oval,  but  in  a  reversed  direction  ;  viz.,  from  outward, 
inward,  and  at  twenty-one  they  all  wear  this  form. 

"  It  would  of  course  be  folly  to  expect  any  thing  like  a 
certainty  in  an  opinion  of  the  exact  age  of  an  old  horse,  as 
drawn  from  the  above  indications.  Stabled  horses  have  the 
marks  sooner  worn  out  than  those  that  are  *  at  grass,  and  crib- 
biters  still  sooner.  At  nine  or  ten,  the  bars  of  the  mouth  be- 
come less  prominent,  and  their  regular  diminution  will  designate 
increasing  age.  At  eleven  or  twelve,  the  lower  nippers  change 
their  original  upright  direction,  and  project  forward  horizon- 
tally, and  become  of  a  yellow  color. 

"The  general  indications  of  old  age,  independent  of  the 
teeth,  are  the  deepening  of  the  hollows  over  the  eyes ;  gray 
hairs,  and  particularly  over  the  eyes,  and  about  the  muzzle ; 
thinness  and  hanging  down  of  the  lips ;  sharpness  of  the 
withers,  sinking  of  the  back,  lengthening  of  the  quarters  ;  and 
the  disappearance  of  windgalls,  spavins,  and  tumors  of  every 
kind. 

"  Horses,  kindly  and  not  prematurely  used,  sometimes  live 
to  between  thirty-five  and  forty -five  years  of  age  ;  and  Mr.  Per- 
cival  gives  an  account  of  a  barge  horse  that  died  in  his  sixty- 
second  year." 

On  this  head  of  age,  I  should  not  have  considered  it  worth 
the  while  to  insert  any  thing  beyond  the  cut  of  the  complete 
aged  mouth,  fig.  11,  with  the  description  accompanying  it,  but 
for  the  prevalent  opinion,  constantly  inculcated  by  interested 
dealers  in  the  United  States,  that  the  age  of  a  horse,  after  eight 
or  nine  years,  can  be  as  certainly  and  as  exactly  predicated  by 
mouth-mark,  and  his  exact  age  guaranteed  accordingly,  as  pre- 
viously to  that  period. 

*  In  relation  to  this,  Mr.  Spooner,  in  his  appendix  to  Youatt  on  the  Horse,  Eng. 
ed.  p.  486,  decidedly  demurs,  in  these  words  : — "A  careful  examination  leads  me  to 
believe  that  the  observation  in  the  text,  that  the  teeth  are  developed  much  earlier 
in  young  animals  that  are  corn-fed  and  taken  early  into  the  stable,  and  consequently 
*  that  in  thoroughbred  horses  the  changes  of  the  teeth  are  earUer  than  in  animals 
that  remain  in  a  state  of  nature,  is  erroneous.  I  think  them,  of  the  two,  rather  the 
more  backward." 

I  note  this  discrepancy  only  to  point  out  how  dubious  all  indications,  and  how 
fallacious  all  judgments  are,  after  eight  years.  H.  W.  H. 


72  THE    HORSE. 

It  is  easy  for  a  judge  to  say  tliat  sucli  a  horse  is  nine  years 
old,  2ivA  probdbhj  not  much  over  tliat  age,  accordingly  as  there 
may  be  some  remains  of  the  mark  in  the  upper  nippers,  and  the 
tushes  be  not  extremely  blunted.  And  the  odds  are  that  he  will 
not  be  far  out  of  the  way. 

Nor  would  I  myself  hesitate  to  purchase  an  aged  horse,  which 
did  not  exhibit  marks  of  extreme  senility,  if  his  general  condi- 
tion, soundness,  state  of  health  and  activity  were  entirely  satis- 
factory, though  I  should  not  pretend  to  say  myself,  or  to  believe 
any  one  else  who  should  venture  to  say,  that  such  horse  was 
above  or  below  ten  or  twelve  years. 

The  marks  of  extreme  senility,  when  it  has  already  super- 
induced emaciation,  the  shrinking  of  the  textures,  the  failure  of 
the  organs  of  sense,  and  the  general  decay  of  the  physical  sys- 
tem, are  not,  of  course,  difficult  to  detect,  or  easy,  when  far 
advanced,  to  mistake. 

But  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that,  although  not,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  commented  upon  by  any  of  the  authorities,  the  first  marks 
of  such  incipient  senility  are  ot^en  fallacious. 

Much  stress  is  laid  by  many  persons  on  the  depth  of  the 
super-orbital  cavities,  and  yet  more  on  the  length  and  extreme 
protrusion  of  the  nippers  beyond  the  gums,  as  also,  in  a  less 
degree,  on  the  hollowness  of  the  back. 

All  these  are  doubtless  indications  of  age,  but  I  have  many 
times  seen  colts,  got  by  sires  i7i  extreme  age^  having  all  these  in- 
dications of  advanced  life,  in  a  degree  scarcely  inferior  to  those 
of  the  aged  stallions,  before  they  had  yet  acquired  a  full  mouth, 
much  less  lost  the  mark. 

And  more  than  once  or  twice  I  have  seen  foals,  newly 
dropped,  with  the  deep  super-orbital  cavities  and  hollow  backs 
bequeathed  to  them  by  their  aged  stallions  before  they  had  got 
their  colt's  teeth. 

By  this  I  do  not  intend  to  deny  that  the  marks  and  indica- 
tions insisted  on  in  the  above  quotations  have  some  foundation 
in  tact,  and  may,  with  very  considerable  qualification,  be  re-  ^ 
garded  as  signs  whereon  to  hang  a  conjectural  judgment,  but  I 
do  mean  most  distinctly  to  assert,  that  there  is  not,  nor  ever  has 
been,  a  horseman  living,  who,  admitting  that  a  horse  is  above 
nine  or  ten,  at  the  very  farthest,  can  ascertain  and  guarantee, 


AGE    BY   KEGISTKY.  '  73 

even  to  his  own  satisfaction,  mucli  less  to  that  of  others,  that 
such  animal  niaj  not  be  twelve,  fourteen,  or  sixteen  instead  of 
ten  ;  although  he  might  feel  well  satisfied  that  the  horse  de- 
scribed as  ten  may  be,  and  almost  surely  is,  nearer  to  the  more 
advanced  term.  Yet  even  in  this  opinion  he  is  liable,  for  the 
causes  above  given,  though  less  liable  than  in  the  other,  to  be 
mistaken. 

The  moral  of  all  this  amounts  simply  to  saying,  that  if  one 
choose  to  buy  a  horse  past  mark  of  mouth,  one  must  do  so  on 
his  own  judgment  and  at  his  own  risk  ;  for  to  credit  any  asser- 
tions, or  to  give  ear  to  any  veterinarian  opinion  on  the  subject, 
is  mere  folly. 

These  remarks  do  not  of  course  apply  to  horses  which  have 
run  for  public  stakes  under  established  names,  or  to  the  regis- 
tered and  recorded  stock  of  thorouglibred  dam  and  sire.  Their 
ages  being  ascertainable  by  the  stud  books  and  turf  registers, 
the  question  is  reduced  to  one  of  identity,  and  that,  established, 
we  are  surer  of  the  horse's  age,  than  of  our  own  by  parish 
record. 


IIISTOEY 

OF    THE    ENGLISH    BLOOD-HORSE. 

It  being,  iu  the  first  place,  admitted  that  tlie  English  blood- 
horse  is  the  most  perfect  animal  of  his  race,  in  the  whole  world, 
both  for  speed  and  endurance,  and  that  the  American  blood-horse 
directly  traces,  without  mixture,  to  English,  and,  through  the 
English,  to  oriental  parentage,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
revert  to  the  origin  and  original  creation  of  the  former  variety, 
in  order  to  come  at  the  pedigree,  characteristics,  and  history  of 
the  latter. 

With  American  blood-horses,  it  is  not  as  it  is  with  American 
men ;  the  latter  may,  in  many  cases,  trace  their  descent  to  an 
admixture  of  the  blood  of  many  nations ;  the  former,  on  the 
contrary,  must  trace  to  the  blood  of  the  English  thoroughbred, 
or,  if  it  fail  to  do  so,  must  sufier  in  consequence  of  the  taint  of 
any  foreign  strain. 

I  do  not,  of  course,  mean  to  assert  that,  in  a  horse  of  unques- 
tioned excellence  and  performance,  it  would  be  a  defect  to  trace 
to  a  new  and  recent  cross  of  Arab  or  Barb  blood ;  but  I  do 
mean  to  say,  that  such  pedigree  would  be  of  no  advantage  to 
the  character  of  the  animal ;  since  it  is  clear  that,  by  no  oriental 
horse  recently  imported  into  Great  Britain  has  the  British 
blood-horse  been  improved — the  "Wellesley  Arabian  having  got 
but  one  ofispring  of  even  moderate  racing  celebrity.  Fair  Ellen 
— while  no  horse  of  the  pure  blood  of  the  desert,  by  any  allow- 
ance of  weight,  has  been  enabled  to  win  a  race  on  the  English 
Turf,  though,  within  the  last  twenty  years,  many  have  been 
started  for  prizes. 

It  is  believed  that  no  Barb,  Arab,  or  Turk  imported  into 
America,  has  ever  got  a  horse  of  any  true  pretensions  on  the 


EAELY   BEITTSH   HORSES.  75 

turf,  or  has  ever  been  the  winner  of  any  important  race ;  and 
yet,  within  a  few  years,  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  at  the 
utmost,  a  considerable  number  have  been  introduced  to  this 
country,  many  of  them  gifts  from  sovereign  potentates  to  dif- 
ferent Presidents  of  the  United  States,  reputed  to  be  of  the 
noblest  breed,  and  surely,  as  regal  gifts,  presumable  to  have 
been  of  true  blood. 

The  theory  and  presumed  cause  of  the  worthlessness  of 
Arab  Sires  at  the  present  day,  will  be  discussed  hereafter,  when 
we  come  to  treat  of  breeding  and  the  influence  of  lineal  descent 
on  the  production  and  transmission  of  hereditary  qualities  in  the 
horse. 

It  suffices,  at  present,  to  observe  that  the  English  race  horse 
is  now  on  all  hands  admitted  to  be  an  animal  of  superior  hered- 
itary qualities  to  the  pure-bred  horse  of  the  desert;  and  that 
the  race  horse  in  America — the  only  country  wherein  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  degenerated  from  his  ancestry — is  identical 
in  breed  and  qualities  with  the  progenitors,  to  whom  he  traces 
his  pedigree. 

In  a  work  of  the  character  to  which  this  volume  aspires 
only,  absolute  originality  is  not  to  be  looked  for ;  nor,  indeed,  is 
it  either  desirable,  or  attainable.  It  must  consist  of  informa- 
tion obtained  at  second  hand,  or  even  more  remotely,  from  the 
most  intelligent  sources,  whether  travellers,  breeders,  sporting- 
men,  or  veterinary  surgeons,  and  of  statistics  carefully  compiled 
from  authentic  registers  and  records.  Of  these,  therefore,  I 
propose  to  avail  myself  largely,  giving  credit  invariably  to  the 
sources  to  which  I  am  indebted;  and,  in  pursuance  of  this 
method,  I  proceed  to  quote,  from  an  excellent  little  work,  by 
William  Youatt,  reprinted  from  Knight's  Store  of  Knowledge, 
re-edited  and  revised  by  Cecil,  and  printed  in  London  during 
the  past  year,  the  following  close  and  accurate  account  of  the 
early  history  and  gradual  improvement  of  the  English  horse. 

"  That  horses  were  introduced  into  Britain  long  before  the 
Christian  era,  we  have  abundant  evidence,  and  that  the  inhabi- 
tants had  acquired  great  experience  in  their  use  is  equally  cer- 
tain. In  the  ancient  British  language  Ehediad  is  the  word  for 
a  race — rheder,  to  run — and  rhedecfa,  a  race.  All  these  spring 
from  the  Gaulish  rheda,  a  chariot^    Here,  then,  is  direct  evi- 


76  TITR    HORSK. 

dence  that  horses  were  introduced  from  Ganl,  and  that  chariot- 
races  were  established  at  a  very  early  period." 

I  would  here  observe,  that  this  evidence  is  not  to  ni}^  mind 
direct  or  conclusive,  as  to  the  fact  of  the  introduction  of  the 
horse  from  Gaul ;  although  it  is  so,  as  to  the  antiquity  of  chariot- 
racing  in  both  countries,  and  to  the  non-Eoman  descent  or 
introduction  of  the  British  or  Gaulish  animal.  And  my  reason 
for  so  saying  is  that,  as  the  blood,  the  religion  and  the  language 
of  the  Britons  were  cognate  if  not  identical  with  those  of  some, 
at  least,  of  the  Gallic  tribes,  it  is  no  more  certain  that  the  Gallic 
Rheda  is  the  theme  of  the  British  rheder,  than  that  it  is  derived 
therefrom.  It  does,  however,  in  a  great  degree  prove  that  the 
Gallic  and  British  horses  were  identical,  and  descended  not 
from  any  breed  transmitted  through  Greece  and  Italy,  but  from 
one  brought  inland  to  the  nortlnvard  of  the  Alps ;  perhaps  by 
those  Gauls,  who  ravaged  Upper  Greece  and  Northern  Italy, 
almost  before  the  existence  of  authentic  history ;  perhaps  by 
their  original  ancestors ;  at  all  events,  of  antique  Thracian  or 
Thessalic  descent,  and,  therefore,  of  remote  but  direct  oriental 
race,  in  all  probability  again  improved  by  a  later  desert  cross, 
derived  from  the  Numidian  cavalry  of  the  Carthaginian  Barcas, 
long  previous  to  the  Caesarian  campaigns  in  Gaul  or  the  inva- 
sions of  the  sacred  island  of  the  Druids.  Tliis^  however,  is  of 
small  immediate  moment,  and  is  more  curious  and  interesting 
to  the  scholar  and  the  antiquary,  than  to  the  horseman  or  horse- 
breeder. 

"  From  the  different  kinds  of  vehicles,  noticed  by  the  Latin 
■writers — the  carruca,  the  covinus^  the  esseduni,  or  w^ar-chariot — 
it  would  appear  that  the  ancient  Britons  had  horses  trained  to 
different  purposes,  as  well  domestic  as  warlike." 

Of  the  number  of  horses  possessed  at  this  period  by  the 
natives  of  Britain,  I  have  already  spoken ;  and  it  is  well 
observed  by  Youatt,  in  his  larger  work  on  the  horse,  that  from 
the  cumbrous  structure  of  the  car  and  the  fury  w'ith  wdiich  it 
was  driven,  and  from  the  badness  or  non-existence  of  roads, 
they  must  have  been  both  active  and  powerful  in  an  extraordi- 
nary degree.  "  Csesar,"  he  adds,  though  without  stating  his 
authority,  "  thought  them  so  valuable,  that  he  carried  many  of 
them  to  Rome ;  and  the  British  horses  were,  for  a  considerable 


athelstan's  importations.  77 

period  aftenvards,  in  great  request  in  various  parts  of  the 
Roman  empire." 

I  regret  that,  owing  to  the  omission  of  giving  authority,  I 
have  been  unable  to  verify  the  latter  statement ;  I  have  failed 
to  discover  any  allusion  to  the  facts  stated,  in  the  writino-g  of 
Caesar  himself;  nor  can  I  recall  to  mind  any  mention  of  British 
horses,  in  any  of  the  classical  authorities,  whether  in  prose  or 
poetry;  nevertheless,  I  presume,  from  the  general  care  and 
truthfulness  of  this  able  writer,  that  there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the 
accuracy  of  his  assertion. 

"  Daring  the  occupation  of  England  by  the  Eomans,  the 
British  horse  was  crossed  to  a  considerable  extent  by  the  Ro- 
man horse" — continues  the  author  in  the  volume  first  quoted  ; 
for  whicli  I  would  myself,  for  reasons  above  stated^  prefer  to  sub- 
stitute lij  the  foreign  horses  of  the  Roman  mercenary  or  allied 
cavalry—^^  and  yet,  strange  to  say,  no  opinion  is  given  by  any 
historian,  Roman  or  British,  as  to  the  effect  of  this.  After  the 
evacuation  of  England  by  the  Romans  and  its  conquest  by  the 
Saxons,  considerable  attention  was  paid  to  the  English  breed  of 
horses,  and  we  know  that  after  the  reign  of  Alfred,  running 
horses  were  imported  from  Germany  ;*  this  being  the  first  his- 
torical intimation  we  have  of  running  horses  in  England.  It  is 
scarcely  to  be  doubted  that  this  importation  produced  a  marked 
effect  on  the  character  of  the  native  breed,  but  here,  as  before, 
no  historian  has  thought  it  worth  his  while  to  record  the  fact  of 
either  improvement  or  deterioration. 

"English  horses,  after  this,  appear  to  have  been  highly 
prized  on  the  continent,  so  that  the  German  horses  which  were 
presented  by  Hugh  Capet  to  Athelstan  had  been  turned  to  good 
account.     The  English  themselves  were,  however,  anxious  to 

*  After  this  date,  we  have  frequent  mention  of  running  horses  in  history, 
although  the  meaning  of  the  term  is  not  distinctly  comprehensible.  It  certainly 
did  not  mean  that  which  we  now  signify  by  the  term,  horses  kept  exclusively  for  the 
purpose  of  racing,  as  nothing  of  the  sort  is  traceable  in  England,  previous  to  the 
reign  of  Charles  1st.  Probably  it  meant  a  horse  of  hght  and  speedy  action  for  the 
road  or  the  chase,  as  opposed  to  the  heavy  destriera  or  war-horses,  capable  of  carry- 
ing a  man-at-arms  in  complete  panoply,  whose  weight,  added  to  that  of  the  horse's 
own  armor,  could  not  have  fallen  far  short  of  twenty-five  horseman's  stone,  or  350 
pounds,  as  we  reckon  in  America. 


78  THE   HORSE. 

preserve  the  monopoly  of  the  breed,  for  in  930  A.  D.,  a  law 
prohibited  the  exportation  of  horses. 

"  In  Athelstan's  reign  many  Spanish  horses  were  imported, 
which  shows  the  desire  of  the  Eiigh'sh,  even  at  that  early  period, 
to  improve  the  breed.  It  is  no  wonder  that  their  descendants 
should  have  produced  the  finest  horses  in  the  world. 

"  Sliortly  before  the  Norman  conquest  a  horse  was  valued  at 
thirty  shillings,  a  mare  or  colt  at  twenty  shillings,  an  ox  at  thirty 
pence,  a  cow  at  twenty-four  jDcnce — these  prices  in  case  of  their 
being  destroyed  or  negligently  lost — and  a  man  at  a  pound." 
Money,  it  should  be  noted,  then  being  equivalent  to  at  least  fif- 
teen times  its  present  value. 

"  William  the  Conqueror  took  g]-eat  pains  to  improve  the 
English  breed,  introducing  many  fine  animals  from  Normandy, 
Flanders  and  Spain.  This  monarcli  owed  his  success  at  Hast- 
ings chiefly  to  his  cavalry ;  his  own  horse  was  a  Spanish  one. 
In  this  reign  we  have  tlie  first  notice  of  horses  being  employed 
in  agriculture.  They  had  been  used  for  the  saddle  for  many 
centuries,  Bede  informing  us  that  the  Euglish  began  to  use 
horses  as  early  as  *  C31  A.  D.,  and  that  peoi^le  of  rank  distin 
guished  themselves  by  appearing  frequently  on  horseback. 

"  During  the  Conqueror's  reign,  the  then  Earl  of  Shrewsbury, 
Roger  de  Belesme,  brought  a  number  of  Spanish  horses  to  his 
estate  of  Powisland.  The  breed  issuing  from  these  is  highly 
eulogzied  by  Giraldus  Cambrensis  and  Dayton. 

"  In  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  we  have  an  account  of  the  first 
Arab  horse  imported  into  the  country.  It  was  presented  by 
Alexander  I.,  king  of  Scotland,  to  the  church  of  St.  Aiidrew's, 
with  many  valuable  accoutrements,  and  a  considerable  estate. 
IIiBtory,  however,  is  silent  as  to  the  purposes  to  which  this  ani- 
mal was  devoted,  or  as  to  what  ultimately  became  of  liim." 

It  has  been  well  pointed  out,  in  this  connection,  that  the  an- 
cient historians,  being  exclusively  monks  and  churchmen,  natu- 
rally paid  little  attention  to  the  breeding  of  horses,  which  were 
held  to  belong  to  war  rather  than  agriculture,  and  were  forbid- 
den to  their  order  ;  and  farther  it  may  be  observed  that,  until, 

*  It  is  not  easy  to  comprehend  what  this  is  intended  to  convey  ;  since  it  is  quite 
clear  that  they  used  cavalry  long  before  the  Christian  era,  and  saddle-horses  during 
the  whole  of  the  Koman  occupation. 


SMITHFIELD   RACES.  79 

comparatively  speaking,  very  recent  times,  no  lieed  has  been 
given  to  the  statistics  of  agricultm-al  or  animal  improvement, 
and  little  mention  made  of  such  matters,  beyond  a  casual  and 
passing  notice,  even  by  the  best  historians. 

"  The  English,"  proceeds  the  work  from  which  I  quote,  "  had 
now  " — that  is  to  say  in  the  reign  of  Heniy  I. — "  become  sen- 
sible of  the  value  and  breed  of  their  horses  ;  and  in  the  twelfth 
century  a  regular  race-course  had  been  established  in  London, 
this  being  no  other  than  Smitlifield,  which  was  at  once  horse- 
market  and  race-course.  Fitz  Stephen,  who  lived  at  that  period, 
gives  the  following  account  of  the  contests  between  the  i^alfreys 
of  the  day. 

" '  When  a  race  is  to  be  run  by  horses,  which  in  their  kind 
are  strong  and  fleet,  a  shout  is  raised,  and  common  horses  are 
ordered  to  withdraw  from  out  the  way.  Two  jockeys  then,  or 
sometimes  three,  as  the  match  may  be  made,  prepare  them- 
selves for  the  contest,  such  as  are  used  to  ride,  and  know  how 
to  manage  their  horses  with  judgment,  the  grand  point  being 
to  prevent  a  competitor  from  getting  before  them.  The  horses 
on  their  part  are  not  without  emulation.  They  tremble,  and 
are  impatient  and  continually  in  motion.  At  last  the  signal 
once  given,  they  hurry  along  with  unremitting  velocity;  the 
jockeys  inspired  with  the  thoughts  of  aijj)lause  and  the  hopes 
of  victory,  clapping  spurs  to  their  willing  steeds,  brandishing 
their  whips,  and  cheering  them  with  their  cries.' 

"  This  is  a  quaint  and  amusing  picture  of  the  dawning  spirit 
of  horse-racing.  Crossing  was  evidently  an  acknowledged  ac- 
complishment, and  personal  flagellations  between  competing 
jockeys  not  unfrequently  resulted  from  excess  of  emulation. 
Fertile  indeed  must  have  been  their  imaginations,  if  they 
dreamed  that  their  racing  frolics  would,  in  process  of  time, 
grow  into  an  important  national  speculation  ;  much  less  could 
they  have  anticipated  that  their  unsophisticated  pastimes  were 
the  embryo  of  that  fame,  which  has  been  acquired  by  England 
through  the  medium  of  the  race-horse. 

"  This  description,  with  the  exception  of  the  cries," — cross- 
ing and  flagellation  also  I  presume  excluded — "  might  have 
formed  part  of  the  record  of  a  modern  race  at  Epsom,  in  the 
columns  of  a  morning  paper ;  so  national  is  the  English  sport 


80  THE    HORSE. 

of  horse-racing,  and  so  nnclianged  are  its  characteristics,  in  all 
but  the  existing  gambling  system,  which  has  been  incorpo- 
rated with  the  efforts  of  the  noble  animal  to  reach  the  goal 
first* 

"  The  crusades  now  followed,"  continues  my  author,  and,  in 
what  follows,  I  consider,  and  expect  to  show,  that  he  is  clearly 

*  In  Strutt's  Sports  and  Pastimes  of  the  People  of  England,  I  find  the  following 
curious  note : — 

"  In  the  Middle  Ages  there  were  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  when  the  nobility 
indulged  themselves  in  running  their  horses,  and  especially  in  the  Easter  and  Whit- 
suntide Holydays." 

♦'  In  the  old  metrical  romance  of  Sir  Bevis  of  Southampton,  it  is  said — 

"  In  summer  at  Whitsuntide, 
When  Knights  must  on  horse  ride, 
A  course  let  them  make  on  a  day, 
Steedes  and  Palfraye  for  to  assaye, 
Which  horse  that  best  may  ren. 
Three  miles  the  course  was  then, 
Who  that  might  ryde  him  shoulde 
Have  forty  pounds  of  ready  golde." 

Of  this  romance  of  "  Sir  Bevis  of  Southampton,"  it  is  impossible  to  verify  the 
date,  but  its  antiquity  is  undoubted.  "  It  is  a  translation  from  the  Anglo-Norman. 
Three  MS.  copies  of  this  romance  in  English  verse " — says  Ellis,  in  his  excellent 
work  on  Early  Metrical  Romances — "  are  still  extant  in  our  pubUc  hbraries  ;  viz.,  in 
the  Auchinleck  MS.  of  the  Advocates  Library,  Edinburgh ;  in  the  Public  Library, 
Cambridge  ;  and  in  that  of  Cuius  College." 

Sir  Bevis  is  pretended  to  have  been  a  Saxon  Earl,  who  lived  at,  or  about,  the 
time  of  the  conquest — this,  of  course,  being  a  fiction — as  the  whole  romance  is  pure 
imagination,  without  any,  the  slightest,  historical  foundation.  There  are,  however, 
strong  reasons  for  assigning  its  composition  to  a  very  remote  era,  Mr.  Elhs  consider- 
ing it,  for  bibUological  reasons,  as  anterior  to  the  Romance  of  Richard  Coeur  de 
Lion,  which  he,  elsewhere,  from  internal  evidence,  shows  to  have  been  nearly  con- 
temporaneous with  the  death  of  that  prince. 

The  poet  is,  it  scarcely  need  be  said,  no  authority  for  any  practice,  fashion,  or 
custom,  which  he  attributes  to  Sir  Bevis,  having  really  existed  in  the  time  to  which 
he  ascribes  his  hero ;  but  is  excellent  evidence  to  the  fact  that  it  existed  in  his 
own  days. 

Thus,  when  we  find  in  the  relation  of  the  Trojan  wars,  in  the  Homeric  poems,  no 
mention  of  cavalry  or  of  the  trumpet,  we  may  well  rest  assured  that  they  were  not 
known  to  the  poet.  When,  in  Virgil's  account  of  the  same  war,  we  read  of  mounted 
horsemen,  of  saddles,  spurs,  and  clarions,  we  are  convinced,  not  that  these  things 
were  used  by  the  belligerents  before  Lion,  but  that  they  were  so  famihar  to  the 
writer,  that  he  knew  nothing  contrary  to  their  use,  from  time  immemorial. 

Here,  therefore,  we  have  an  authentic  record  of  something  nearly  resembling  a 
real  race,  with  a  hmited  course  and  a  valuable  prize,  in  the  latter  part,  at  farthest, 
of  the  twelfth  century — the  Smithfield  runnings  described  above  seeming  to  savor 
more  of  horse-dealers'  displays,  in  order  to  sell,  than  of  real  races. 


82  THE    HOKSE. 

It  is  stated  by  Mr.  Youatt,  although,  singularly  enough,  he 
maintains  that  the  crusaders  did  not  introduce  eastern  horses, 
that  Eichard  I.  did  import  two  from  Cyprus,  which  he  ob- 
serves "j9/y/>«Z'///,"  he  might  have  said  certainly^  "  were  of 
eastern  origin."  The  statement  is  made  on  the  faith  of  an  old 
metrical  Romance,  wliich  is  that  entitled  by  the  name  of  the 
monarch  whose  feats  it  celebrated,  usually  supposed  to  be  of 
the  time  of  Edward  I.,  and  contained  in  Ellis's  Metrical  Ro- 
mances. The  lines  are  curious,  as  they  indicate  a  full  acquaint- 
ance with  various  animals,  natives  of  the  East,  and  more  par- 
ticularly with  the  especial  qualities  of  the  oriental  horse,  his 
speed  and  surefootedness. 

These  horses  were  named  Favell  and  Lyard — 

"  In  the  world  was  not  their  peer, 
Dromedary,  not  destrere, 
Steed  'rabyte,  ne  caraayl, 
That  ran  so  swift  sans  fail, 
For  a  thousand  pounds  of  gold. 
Should  not  that  one  be  sold." 

Destrere,  it  must  be  observed,  is  the  old  spelling  of  the  word 
Destrier^  in  Norman  French,  derived  from  the  barbarous.  Mid- 
dle Age  Latin,  Dextrarius  signifying  a  war-horse.  Edward  I. 
also  is  known  to  have  inti-oduced  horses  from  the  East ;  and 
that  accurate  and  inquiring  antiquary,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  de- 
scribes his  spirit,  or  the  demon  of  the  haunted  camp  under  his 
form,  in  the  noctural  tourney  with  Alexander  of  Scotland,  as 
being  recognized  by  the  horse  he  bestrode. 

"  Alike  his  Syrian  courser's  frame, 
The  rider's  length  of  limb  the  same." 

It  is  notorious,  moreover,  and  was  one  of  the  charges  against 
the  Templars,  at  the  period  of  their  downfall,  that,  being  vowed 
to  frugality  and  poverty,  as  was  indicated  by  their  original  em- 
blem of  two  Knights  mounted  on  one  charger,  they  had  ex- 
pended vast  sums  in  luxurious  appliances,  of  no  real  utility,  as 
Eastern  horses,  dogs  and  birds,  for  the  chase  and  falconry,  and 
other  vain  and  worldly  pleasures. 

From  this  I  gather,  not  by  any  means  that  the  crusaders 
neglected  or  failed  to  perceive  the  peculiar  excellencies  of  the 


THE    PLANTAGENETS,  83 

oriental  horses,  much  less  avoided  to  import  them  ;  but  that, 
when  they  did  introduce  them,  it  was  not,  as  yet,  with  a  view 
to  the  improvement  of  the  English  animal  by  crossing,  but  as 
a  creature  to  be  used  for  pomp  or  for  pleasure,  for  the  proces- 
sion, the  park,  or  the  hunting  field. 

Imported  it  undoubtedly  was  ;  and,  as  it  was  in  those  days 
considered  a  reproach  for  a  gentleman  to  ride  a  mare,  they  were 
doubtless  stallions  which  would  be  introduced,  and,  as  such, 
would  surely  cross  the  blood  of  the  native  horse  ;  not,  it  is  pro- 
bable, with  a  view  to  producing  chargers,  but  palfreys,  and 
what  were  then  styled  running- horses. 

Spanish  horses,  we  have  seen,  had  come  to  be  renowned,  as 
chargers,  so  early  as  the  Norman  conquest,  but  it  is  more  than 
questionable  whether  their  superiority  was  as  yet  known  to 
arise  from  their  being  traceable,  in  nearly  two  thirds,  to  the 
blood  of  the  Desert. 

At  this  time,  it  would  seem  to  have  been  considered  desir- 
able to  strengthen  the  English  horse,  and  gain  bone  and  bulk, 
rather  than  blood — not,  I  imagine,  as  Mr.  Youatt  suggests  in  the 
following  sentence,  for  agricultural,  but  rather  for  military  pur- 
poses ;  in  order  to  endure  the  ponderous  burden  of  the  mail-clad 
men-at-arms. 

"King  John,"  he  says,  "paid  great  attention  to  the  im- 
provement of  horses  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  to  him  we 
are  indebted  for  the  origin  of  our  draught-horses.  He  chiefly 
imported  Flemish  horses  " — one  hundred  chosen  stallions  on  a 
single  occasion  ;  the  Flanders  horse  being — as  it  was  even  in 
the  time  of  Marlborough  and  Prince  Eugene — the  most  ap- 
proved cavalry  trooper — "  and  such  was  his  anxiety  to  possess 
the  finest  stock  from  these,  that  he  would  accept  strong  horses 
as  rent  for  crown-lands,  and  as  fines  for  the  renewal  of  leases 
His  personal  stud  was  both  numerous  and  excellent." 

"  One  hundred  years  afterward,  Edward  II.  purchased  thirty 
war-horses  and  twelve  heavy  draught-horses." 

"  Edward  HI.  devoted  one  thousand  marks  to  the  purchase 
of  fifty  Spanish  horses  ;  and  of  such  importance  did  he  conceive 
this  addition  to  the  English,  or  rather  mingled  blood,  then  ex- 
isting, that  formal  application  was  made  to  the  kings  of  France 
and  Spain  to  grant  safe-conduct  to  the  troop.     When  they  had 


84-  THE    HORSE. 

safely  arrived  at  the  royal  stud,  it  was  computed  that  they  liad 
cost  the  monarch  no  less  than  thirteen  pounds  six  shilliii<<;s  and 
eiglit  pence  per  horse,  equal  in  value  to  one  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds  of  our  money," 

"  This  monarch  had  many  r mining- Jiorses.  Tlie  precise 
meaning  of  the  term  is  not,  however,  clear.  It  might  be  light 
and  speedy  horses  in  opposition  to  the  war-horses,  or  those  tliat 
were  literally  used  for  the  purposes  of  racing." 

Of  course  nothing  like  regular  systematic  racing,  with 
courses,  distances,  weiglits  and  colors  were  as  yet  in  existence  ; 
but  that  testing  the  speed  of  their  favorite  coursers  was,  even 
before  this  time,  an  amusement  of  the  English  nobility,  is  made 
evident  by  the  following  historical  anecdote.  This  fact  is  in- 
troduced, with  much  effect,  by  Mr.  James,  into  one  of  his 
admirable  romances,  not  the  least  of  the  merits  of  which  is  their 
close  adherence  to  the  letter  as  well  as  the  spirit  of  the  history 
of  the  times.  Tlie  horse,  which  was  lent  for  the  purpose  to 
which  he  was  successfully  applied,  is  described  by  the  novelist 
as  being  a  tall,  gaunt,  raw-boned  gray,  not  remarkable  for  show, 
but  of  immense  speed  and  endurance — but  whether  this  minute 
description  be  taken  from  some  ancient  chronicle,  or  be  merely 
an  ornamental  amplification  to  aid  verisimilitude,  I  know  not. 

Edward  I.,  while  prince  of  Wales,  was  taken  prisoner  with 
his  father  Henry  III.,  at  the  battle  of  Lewes,  by  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort,  Earl  of  Leicester,  at  the  head  of  the  confederated  barons. 
Being  confined  in  a  sort  of  free  custody  under  the  guardianship 
of  certain  knights  and  noblemen,  who  were  enjoined  at  all 
times  to  have  hira  in  view,  though  treating  him  with  all 
consideration  due  to  his  rank,  he  was  permitted  to  take  horse 
exercise  in  company  with  his  gentle  jailers.  On  one  occasion, 
being  furnished  with  a  charger  of  surpassing  speed  by  a  secret 
partisan,  and  instructed  how  to  profit  by  its  powers,  he  set  his 
guards  to  matching  their  horses  one  against  the  other,  offering 
small  prizes  of  honor  to  the  winners  ;  until  perceiving  that  the 
horses  were  all  more  or  less  worried,  he  proposed  to  enter  him- 
self for  a  match  with  the  last  victor,  when  he  easily  rode  away 
from  the  whole  party,  and  won  his  liberty  by  the  speed  of  his 
courser,  and  his  own  jockeyship. 

In  the  reign  of  Kichard  II.,  horse-jockeyship  and  the  tricks 


EARLY  VALUE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  HORSE.  85 

of  dealers  had  increased  to  such  an  extent,  that  a  special  pro- 
clamation was  issued,  regulating  the  price  of  animals  of  various 
kinds,  and  fixing  a  maximum  value.  Like  all  other  sumptuary 
laws  and  prohibitory  statutes  affecting  to  regulate  trade,  this 
proclamation  proved  wholly  useless  and  fell  dead.  It  is  curious, 
however,  as  proving  the  great  increase  in  the  value  of  horses, 
since  the  preceding  reign,  and  "  showing  what  were,  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago,  and  what  are  still,  the  chief  breeding 
districts.  It  was  ordered  to  be  published  in  the  counties  of  Lin- 
coln and  Cambridge,  and  in  the  north  and  east  ridings  of  York. 
The  price  was  restricted  to  that  determined  by  former  sover- 
eigns." Exportation  of  horses  was  strictly  forbidden,  especially 
to  Scotland,  as  a  kingdom  with  which  England  was  constantly 
at  war ;  and  it  is  remarkable,  that,  even  in  the  time  of  Eliza- 
beth, it  was  felony  to  export  a  horse  to  Scotland. 

These  prohibitions,  how  contrary  soever  to  recent  and  more 
enlightened  views  as  to  the  injurious  eftects  of  such  restrictions 
on  the  freedom  of  trade,  distinctly  prove  two  things.  First,  that 
the  people  and  monarchs  of  England  had  now  become  fully 
awake  to  the  value  of  race  and  breed  in  horses ;  and,  second, 
that  the  superior  quality  of  English  horses  was  thus  early  ac- 
knowledged abroad,  and  that  the  demand  for  them  was  sup- 
posed to  be  greater  than  the  superfluity. 

"  We  can  now,"  I  quote  again  from  Mr.  Youatt,  "  collect 
but  little  of  the  history  of  the  horse  until  the  reign  of  Henry  YIL 
at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  He  continued  to  prohibit 
the  exportation  of  stallions,  but  allowed  mares  to  be  exported, 
when  more  than  two  years  old,  and  under  the  value  of  six  shil- 
lings and  eight  pence.  This  regulation  was,  however,  easily 
evaded,  for  if  a  mare  could  be  found  worth  more  than  six  and 
eight  pence,  she  might  be  freely  exported  on  payment  of  that 
sum." 

This  last  sentence,  I  confess,  with  all  deference  to  Mr. 
Youatt,  is  to  me  incomprehensible  ;  or  rather  it  seems  to  be 
utter  nonsense. 

It  is  evident,  from  the  spirit  of  the  statute,  which  is  intended 
to  prohibit  the  exportation  of  valuable  animals,  and  permit — 
perhaps  promote — that  of  worthless  jades,  that  six  shillings  and 


86  THE    HORSE. 

eight  pence  was,  then,  the  minimum  price  of  a  two-year-old 
mare. 

Tlie  difficulty  was,  probably,  not  to  find  a  mare  of  that  age, 
over^  but  one  under,  that  value.  It  was,  as  in  price  races,  where 
the  winner  can  be  claimed  for  purchase  at  a  low  price,  a  prohi- 
bition on  the  valuable  beast. 

Now,  it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  where  the  ease  of  evading 
such  a  statute  should  lie.  Since  if  six  shillings  and  eight  pence 
were  the  value,  to  the  native  breeder  or  dealer,  of  a  very  infe- 
rior animal,  he  would  not — one  should  say — be  very  like  io  find 
one  of  greater  value,  and  sell  it  to  the  foreign  dealer,  for  less 
than  it  was  actually  worth  to  himself. 

If  Mr.  Youatt  merely  means  to  say — what  he  does  not  say — 
that  it  would  be  easy  to  make  a  nominal  sale  at  six  and  eight 
pence,  while  a  much  larger  price  should  be  secretly  understood 
and  paid,  he  merely  predicates  what  is  the  case  of  every  statute 
having  reference  to  money  values,  bargains,  bets,  or  borrow- 
ings ;  and  consequently  the  remark  is  of  no  value,  or  meaning. 

In  the  reign  of  Henry  YIII.,  many  highly  arbitrary  statutes 
were  passed,  and  doubtless  enforced — for  few  of  his  enactments 
were  not  enforced,  rigorously  and  unto  terror — for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  horse. 

It  was  decreed — and  I  cannot  doubt,  although  Mr.  Youatt 
seems  to  do  so,  with  great  advantage  to  the  breed,  however  it 
might  be  to  the  owners — that  no  stallion  should  be  suffered  to 
run  at  large,  on  any  waste  or  common,  where  the  animals  pas- 
tured, and  were  of  course  liable  to  breed  proiniscuously,  under 
the  height  of  fifteen  hands,  on  pain  of  forfeiture  ;  and  that  all 
foals,  fillies  or  mares  likely  to  breed  undersized  or  ill-shaped 
produce,  should  be  killed  and  buried. 

He  also  compelled,  by  act,  all  the  nobility,  gentry,  and 
higher  orders  of  the  clergy,  to  keep  a  number  of  horses  propor- 
tionate to  their  rank  ;  and  obliged,  even,  every  country  parson, 
"  whose  wife  should  be  entitled  to  wear  a  French  hood,  or  vel- 
vet bonnet,"  *  to  keep  an  entire  trotting  horse  under  penalty 
of  twenty  pounds. 

*  This  was  a  sumptuary  regulation.  The  wife  of  no  person,  below  a  certain 
rank  in  society,  possessed  of  a  certain  annual  income,  being  permitted  to  wear  such 
a  hood. 


TIMES    OF    HENRY    VUI,  87 

I  readily  admit  the  harshness  and  arbitrary  nature  of  such 
regulations,  but  I  cannot  imagine  how  "  they  should  have  the 
effect,  which  common  sense  would  have  anticipated — that  the 
breed  of  horses  was  not  materially  improved,  and  the  numbers 
sadly  diminished." 

The  prohibiting,  and  in  a  great  measure  rendering  impossi- 
ble, the  production  of  offspring  by  undersized  and  ill-formed 
parents,  is  only  compelling  the  whole  unreflecting  populace  to 
do  what  every  reflecting  and  intelligent  breeder  does  voluntarily, 
because  he  knows  it  is  for  his  own  advantage  to  do  it. 

Xo  horseman  can,  I  presume,  doubt  that,  if  such  a  thing 
were  possible  as  absolutely  to  prohibit  and  prevent  the  use  of 
stallions  or  mares,  for  breeding  purposes,  evidently  broken- 
winded,  with  faulty  forelegs,  bad  feet,  spavined,  or  otherwise 
notoriously  unsound,  malformed,  or  physically  defective,  the 
race  of  animals  would  be  immediately  and  materially  im- 
proved. 

K  the  qualities,  whether  defects  or  merits,  of  the  horse,  and 
of  animals  generally,  whether  phj^sical  or  mental,  be  hereditary 
and  transmissible  with  the  blood,  the  improvement,  which 
would  result  from  such  prohibition,  is  a  necessary  consequence. 

If  the  qualities  be  not  hereditary  and  transmissible,  then  the 
whole  theory  and  system  of  breeding  is  a  fallacy,  and  the  blood- 
horse  himself  not  a  reality  but  a  myth. 

That  such  prohibitory  enactments  as  that  first  named,  com- 
pelling the  destruction  of  undersized  horses  and  mares  on  the 
public  wastes  and  commons,  would  naturally  tend,  if  uncon- 
nected with  any  other  statute  on  the  subject,  to  diminish  the 
number,  while  improving  the  standard,  of  all  horses  bred,  is 
certain. 

But  we  find  here  in  Henry  YIII.'s  reign — wonderful  reign, 
trul}'',  of  a  wondei'ful  man — another  enactment,  far  more  arbi- 
trary than  the  preceding — rendering  compulsory  the  maintenance 
of  so  gi-eat  a  number  of  full-sized  mares  and  stallions,  in  every 
deer  park,  and  in  every  rural  parish  of  the  realm,  as  must  have 
tended  to  bring  about  an  increase  of  animals,  bred  of  powerful 
and  well-formed  parents,  equal,  at  least — in  all  probability,  one 
would  say,  vastly  superior — to  that  of  the  w^orthless  jades,  de- 
stroyed under  the  first  clause  of  the  act. 


88  THE    HORSE. 

It  is  curious  that  we  have  nearly  a  contemporary  account 
of  horse-races,  ridden  by  Henry  himself,  with  Charles  Bi-andon, 
Duke  of  Suffolk,  in  the  presence  of  Queen  Katharine,  and  that, 
in  his  reign,  the  first  annual  races,  on  a  regular  race-course, 
were  established  in  England  :  so  closely — it  might  be  said,  indi- 
visibly — is  horse-racing,  in  its  proper  form,  connected  with  the 
improvement  of  the  horse. 

"  Katharine  and  the  royal  bride,"  says  Miss  Strickland,  in 
her  life  of  Katharine  of  Arragon, — the  royal  bride  being  Mary, 
Henry's  favorite  sister,  widow  of  Louis  XII.  of  France,  and 
bride  of  Charles  Brandon, — "  rode  a  Maying  with  the  king  from 
the  palace  of  Greenwich  to  Shooter's  Hill.  Here  the  archers 
of  the  king  met  them  dressed  like  Kobin  Hood  and  his  outlaws, 
and  begged  that  the  royal  party  would  enter  the  good  green- 
wood, and  see  how  outlaws  lived. 

"  On  this  Henry  turned  to  the  queen,  and  asked  her,  '  if  she 
and  her  damsels  would  venture  in  a  thicket  with  so  many  out- 
laws ? ' 

"  Katharine  replied.  '  that  where  he  went  she  was  content 
to  go.' 

"  The  king  then  handed  her  to  a  sylvan  bower,  formed  of 
hawthorn  boughs,  spring  flowers  and  moss,  with  aj)artment8 
adjoining,  where  was  laid  out  a  breakfast  of  venison.  The 
queen  partook  of  the  feast,  and  was  greatly  delighted  with  this 
lodge  in  the  wilderness  :  "  here  follows  a  long  description  of  tlie 
pageants  which  they  encountered  on  their  return  to  Greenwich 
palace,  concluding  with  this  passage  : — 

"  The  amusements  of  the  day  concluded  with  the  king  and 
his  brother-in-law,  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  riding  races  on  great 
coursers,  which  were  like  the  Flemish  breed  of  dray-horses. 
Strange  races  these  must  have  been,"  adds  the  lady  writer, 
"  but  this  is  the  first  mention  of  horse-racing  made  in  English 
history." 

It  is  not  the  first  mention,  as  I  have  shown  above,  but  it  may, 
perhaps,  be  considered  the  first  instance  of  horse-racing  being 
used  as  an  acknowledged  sport,  and  part  of  a  series  of  regular 
and  pre-devised  entertainments — the  rather  that  we  find  a  race- 
course proper,  with  annual  meetings  and  fixed  prizes,  first 
established  in  this  reign. 


THE   TEEM    "  GREAT   HOESE."  89 

Miss  Strickland,  however,  errs  widely,  and  not  unnaturally, 
as  a  lady  is  not  expected  to  be  skilled  in  the  dialect  of  the 
horse-market,  in  the  interpretation  she  puts  on  the  words  of  the 
old  chronicler.  Hall,  and  on  the  character  which  she  attaches 
to  the  Flemish  Breed. 

The  term  great  courser^  as  used  in  the  text,  or  as  it  is,  per- 
haps, more  frequently  written,  great  horse,  means  no  more  than 
war  horse,  as  opposed  to  palfrey  or  running-horse,  and  has  no 
especial  reference  to  the  size,  bulk,  or  breed  of  the  animal, 
though  doubtless  the  war-horse  was  a  larger  and  heavier  animal 
than  that  used  for  mere  amusement. 

Afterwards  the  term  gi^eat  horse,  simply,  is  to  be  understood 
as  the  horse  broken  to  the  manege ;  it  is  a  term,  familiar  to  any 
one  acquainted  with  the  old  English  writers,  to  say  of  a  young 
gentleman,  who  had  finished  his  physical  education,  that  he 
could  fence  and  ride  the  great  horse,  meaning  that  he  could  per- 
fectly ride  the  manege. 

It  is  true,  that  the  inferior  men-at-arms,  at  this  period,  were 
mounted  on  Flemish  horses,  but  the  princes  and  nobles  and 
other  knights  of  renown  rode  Spani'sh  or  English  horses,  with  a 
considerable  strain  of  desert  blood,  possessing,  through  Flemish 
and  other  strains,  bone  and  bulk  sufficient  to  carry  warriors  in 
their  panoply. 

But  it  is  not  true  that  the  Flemish  horse  of  that  day,  or 
later,  when  Marlborough  at  the  head  of  the  Dutch  and  English 
cavalry,  mounted  on  Flemish  chargers,  rode  over  the  superb 
French  gendarmerie  of  Maison  Roi  at  Malplaquet,  bore  any 
resemblance  whatever  to  the  dray-horse  of  to-day,  though  he  be 
also  Flanders  descent,  any  more  than  did  the  "  Flanders  mares" 
which  were  the  highest  aspiration  of  the  extravagant  court- 
beauty  in  the  days  of  Poj)e. 

To  any  person,  who  knows  any  thing  of  cavalry  tactics,  it 
is  evident  that  the  utmost  speed,  compatible  with  the  ability  to 
carry  weight,  is  the  desideratum  in  a  charger.  And  every  one 
who  has  ever  seen  an  Enghsh  dray-horse  knows  that  he  cannot 
trot,  much  less  gallop  ;  while  I  myself  remember  that  within  the 
present  half  century  the  old  unimproved  English  carriage  horse, 
high-stepping  and  awkwardly  moving,  was  doing  great  work  if 
he  trotted  six  miles  an  hour,  and  could  by  no  means  be  brought 


90  THE    HORSE. 

to  gallop,  even  under  the  saddle,  when  he  was  sometimes 
backed  by  an  unfortunate  groom  or  out-rider. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  heavier,  slower,  and  coarser  chargers 
were  used  when  men  fought  in  complete  steel,  than  now  when 
they  charge  in  huzzar  dolmans  and  pelisses ;  but  the  weight 
has  been  vastly  exaggerated,  and  the  breed  deteriorated.  Nor 
do  I  believe,  that,  were  it  jjossible  to  be  proved,  there  was  so 
much  difference  between  the  chargers  of  the  English  men-at- 
arms  who  decided  the  fight  at  Cressy,  and  those  which  fought 
at  Malplaquet  and  Dettingen,  as  there  is  between  the  latter  and 
the  British  troop-horses  lately  serving  in  the  East. 

To  proceed,  however,  in  order,  it  was  during  Henry's 
occupancy  of  the  throne,  though  the  exact  year  is  not  known, 
that  an  annual  race  was  run  at  Chester. 

"  The  prize  was  a  wooden  ball  embellished  with  flowers, 
fixed  upon  the  point  of  a  lance.  This  diversion  was  repeated 
in  the  presence  of  the  mayor  of  the  city,  and  was  celebrated 
on  the  Roodee,  the  identical  spot  where  the  races  are  held  at 
this  day.  These  trophies  were  provided  by  the  company  of 
saddlers.  In  the  year  1540,  a  silver  bell  was  substituted  for 
the  former  prize,  under  the  title  of  St.  George's  Bell."  Hence 
comes  the  common  phrase  to  "  bear  the  bell,"  as  equivalent  to 
be  the  victor. 

In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  for  some  reason  not  clearly  expli- 
cable, the  number  and  breed  of  horses  in  England  would  both 
have  appeared  to  degenerate ;  for  it  is  stated,  that  when  she 
mustered  the  wliole  militia  of  her  realm  to  resist  the  invasion 
of  Don  Philip,  she  could  collect  but  three  thousand  horse. 

Taking  the  statement  to  be  true,  however,  which  I  cannot 
readily  do, — seeing  that  at  the  period  of  the  usurpation  of  Jane 
Grey  and  Dudley,  only  a  few  years  earlier,  the  protector  North- 
umberland was  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  horse,  and  Queen 
Mary  of  a  yet  larger  body,  while  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  at  a 
few  days'  notice,  levied  a  thousand  to  defend  her  own  and  her 
sister's  rights — I  attribute  it  to  other  causes  than  the  disuse  of 
horses  or  decay  of  horsemanship  in  England. 

It  might,*  if  it  be  a  fact,  arise  from  the  prohibition,  enforced 

*  It  is  evident,  however,  that,  for  all  this  allegation  of  deterioration  of  the  ani- 
mal, in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  blood  had  already  its  full  and  due  appreciation,  and 


THE    MARKHAM    ARABIAN.  91 

during  the  Tudor  reigns,  to  the  supporting  bodies  of  armed 
retainers  bj  the  great  nobles ;  and  might  rather  point  to  the 
consequences  of  the  decline  of  feudal  militia,  and  the  absence 
as  yet  of  a  regular  cavalry  force,  than  to  the  decay  to  so  enor- 
mous an  extent  in  so  short  a  time  of  the  equestrian  resources 
of  England,  the  people  of  which  in  their  habits  continued, 
both  high  and  low,  and  still  to  this  day  continue,  to  be  singu- 
larly equestrian,  using  the  saddle  infinitely  more,  and  light 
vehicles  immeasm-ably  less,  than  the  corresponding  classes  of 
the  United  States. 

With  the  accession  of  James  I.  to  the  throne  of  England,  a 
monarch,  of  whom  it  is  well  that  one,  by  any  scrutiny,  may 
discover  and  declare  one  creditable  feature,  a  great  improve- 
ment was  systematically  wrought  in  the  English  breed,  and 
from  this  period  breeding  was  constantly  and  progressively 
attended  to.  James  purchased  Markham's  Arabian  horse  at 
the  then  extraordinary  price  of  £500,  but  he  was  found  to  be 
deficient  in  speed;  and  the  Duke  of  K"ewcastle,  who  then 
managed  the  king's  racing  and  hunting  studs,  having,  it  is  said, 
on  this  account  taken  a  dislike  to  the  horse,  his  breed  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  tested,  and  for  a  time  Arabians  fell  into  dis- 
repute. 

Kace   meetings  were  now  regularly  held  at  Newmarket, 

that  horses  were  valued  in  accordance  to  their  pedigree,  as  apart  from,  or  perhaps 
above,  their  performances  ;  and  that  to  a  degree  which  seemed  absurd  and  idle  to 
persons  ignorant  of  the  extent  to  which  hereditary  qualities  are  transmitted  in  the 
blood  of  horses,  and  which  Bishop  Hall  considered  so  worthy  of  ridicule,  as  to  hold 
it  up  to  derision  as  a  fallacy,  in  one  of  his  satires  : — 

"  Dost  thou  prize 
Thy  bmte  beast's  worth  by  their  dam's  qualities  ? 
Say'st  thou  this  colt  shall  prove  a  swift -paced  steed  ? 
Only  because  a  Jennet  did  him  breed? 
Or  say'st  thou  this  same  horse  shall  win  the  prize, 
Because  his  dam  was  swiftest  Truncheflce, 
Or  Euncevall  his  sire ;  himself  a  galloway, 
While  like  a  tireling  jade  he  lags  half  way  ?  " 

The  error  of  the  worthy  prelate,  who  is  not  expected  to  be  a  capital  Turfman, 
in  under-estimating  blood,  surely  proves  that  in  his  day  it  was  not  generally  under- 
estimated in  England ;  and  it  farther  indicates  the  common  and  usual  occurrence 
of  running  for  prizes.  In  conjunction  with  what  has  been  before  shown,  I  think  it 
goes  far  to  prove  that  the  alleged  deterioration  of  the  English  horse,  under  Elizabeth, 
is  imaginary ;  and  that  the  improvement  of  the  animal  in  England  has  been  pro- 
gressive from  the  first. 


92  THE    HORSE. 

Croydon,  Tlieobald's  on  Epping  chase,  Stamford,  various  places 
in  Yorksliire,  and,  as  of  old,  at  Chester,*     A  regular  system  of 

*  In  Strutt's  Sports  and  Pastimes  I  find  the  following  curious  and  suggestive  no- 
tices of  the  early  courses  : — 

The  Chester  Races. — "  In  1665,  5th  of  Charles  Second,"  according  to  a  Chester 
antiquary,  probably  the  elder  Randal  Holme  of  Chester,  one  of  the  heralds  of  the 
city,  "  the  sheriffs  would  have  no  calves'  head  feast,  but  put  the  charge  of  it  into  a 
piece  of  plate  to  be  run  for  on  that  day,  Shrove  Tuesday ;  and  the  high  sheriff  bor- 
rowed a  Barbary  horse  of  Sir  Thomas  Middleton,  which  won  him  the  plate ;  and 
being  master  of  the  race,  he  would  not  suffer  the  horses  of  Master  Massy,  of  Pud- 
dington,  and  of  Sir  Philip  Egerton  of  Sutton,  to  run,  because  they  came  the  day 
after  the  time  prefixed  for  the  horses  to  be  brought  and  kept  in  the  city,  which 
thing  caused  all  the  gentry  to  relinquish  our  races  ever  since." 

The  Stamford  Races. — "  Races,"  continues  Mr.  Strutt,  "  something  similar  to 
those  above,  are  described  by  Butcher,  in  his  survey  of  the  town  of  Stamford,  first 
printed  A.  D.  1646,  as  practised  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town  of  Stamford  in  Lincoln- 
shire ;  '  a  concourse,'  says  he,  '  of  noblemen  and  gentlemen  meet  together,  in  mirth, 
peace  and  amity,  for  the  exercise  of  their  swift  running  horses,  every  Thursday  in 
March.  The  prize  they  run  for  is  a  silver  and  gilt  cup,  with  a  cover,  to  the  value 
of  seven  or  eight  pounds,  provided  by  the  care  of  the  aldermen  for  the  time  being ; 
but  the  money  is  raised  out  of  the  interest  of  a  stock  formerly  made  up  by  the  no- 
bility and  gentry,  which  are  neighbors  and  well-wishers  to  the  town." 

These  two  passages  indicate,  the  latter  even  prior  to  the  commonwealth,  the 
existence  of  something  very  nearly  allied  to  our  present  system  of  horse-racing, 
although  necessarily  without  its  nice  and  minute  details,  the  result  of  long  expe- 
rience, and  a  complete  acquaintance  with  all  the  desiderata  of  the  sport. 

Here,  however,  we  have  stated  meetings,  a  stated  course,  prizes  given,  partly, 
it  is  clear,  to  encourage  the  breed  of  horses,  partly  to  attract  company  to  the 
town,  whose  corporation,  like  that  of  Doncaster,  to-day,  profited  by  the  influx  of 
visitors. 

From  this  time  the  sport  has  continued,  unchecked,  except  for  a  short  period 
during  the  foolish  fanaticism  of  the  Puritan  usurpation — a  fanaticism  opposed  by 
Oliver  Cromwell,  who  himself  owned  race-horses,  though  perhaps  he  never  ran 
them — until  the  present  day,  when  it  may  be  considered  a  national  characteristic. 
James  II.  and  William  of  Orange  both  encouraged  horse-racing  as  the  best  means 
of  improving  the  British  horse.  Anne,  in  whose  reign  the  Darley  Arabian  and  Cur- 
wen's  Barb  were  imported,  both  kept  running  horses  herself  and  gave  an  annual 
gold  cup  to  be  run  for  at  York  ;  and  the  custom  of  giving  king's  plates  to  the  value 
of  fifty  or  a  hundred  pounds,  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  fostering  the  breed  of 
English  horses,  originated  with  her,  and  has  been  continued  unto  the  present  hour, 
the  actual  sums  of  money  being  run  for,  in  lieu  of  manufactured  plate,  at  almost 
every  provincial  course  of  any  note  in  England.  George  lY.  and  William  IV.  were 
both  ardent  supporters  of  the  turf;  and  the  latter  sovereign,  at  one  time,  owned  a 
stud  not  easily  to  be  surpassed  in  his  realm,  comprising  the  Colonel,  Zinganee,  and 
Fleur  de  lis — three  incomparable  animals,  which  I  once  saw,  in  1830,  come  in  first, 
second,  and  third,  the  rest  of  the  field  nowhere,  running  against  one  another  for  the 
Goodwood  cup,  the  sailor  king  refusing,  in  his  naval  mood  of  blunt  fair  play,  to 
declare^  and  insisting  that  the  best  animal  of  the  three  should  win. 


EARLY    STEEPLE-CHASma.  93 

training  tlie  horses,  and  of  running  according  to  weight,  age 
and  distance,  was  now  introduced.  Pedigrees  were  kept,  the 
best  and  stoutest  horses  and  mares  being  kept  for  breed,  and 
their  progeny  being  for  the  most  part  set  aside  for  racing  pur- 
poses. 

"  The  races  of  King  James  were  in  great  part,"  says  Mr. 
Youatt,  "  matches  against  time,  or  trials  of  speed  or  bottom  for 
absurdly  long  and  cruel  distances." 

"  There  was,  at  first,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  no  course  marked 
out  for  the  race,  but  the  contest  generally  consisted  in  running 
train-scent " — what  is  now  known  as  a  drag — "  across  the  coun- 
try, and  sometimes  the  most  difficult  and  dangerous  part  of  the 
country  was  selected  for  the  exhibition.  Occasionally  our  pre- 
sent steeple-chase  was  adopted  with  all  its  dangers  and  more 
than  its  present  barbarity ;  as  persons  were  appointed  cruelly 
to  flog  along  the  exhausted  and  jaded  horses." 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Youatt  neither  states  the  date 
of  these  performances,  nor  indicates  his  authority.  He  mentions 
them,  however,  previously,  in  point  of  place,  to  his  mention  of 
King  James's  matches  against  time,  wherefore  I  presume  that 
they  took  place  previously,  in  regard  of  occurrence.  The  fact 
is  stated  as  if  in  relation  to  the  races  at  Chester  and  Stamford, 
in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 

Yet  this  seems  hardly  to  consist  with  the  mention  of  the 
Roodee,  which  is  and  was  a  regular  course. 

Her  present  Majesty»has  never,  nor  has  the  prince  consort,  entered  a  race-horse 
for  any  prize,  but  they  are  constant  attendants  at  the  racing  meetings,  and  a  small 
but  splendid  royal  stud  of  mares  is  now  kept  at  Hampton  Court,  with  success  and 
profit. 

Never,  probably,  has  the  turf  been  so  popular  in  England,  as  it  is  now,  since  its 
purification  by  the  late  Lord  George  Bentinck ;  never  was  it  so  efficiently  supported, 
nor  ever,  I  believe,  despite  all  the  silly  outcries  about  deterioration  of  blood,  decline 
of  size  and  physique,  and  decrease  of  soundness,  stamina,  and  stanchness,  has  the 
English  or  the  American  race-horse  been  equal,  far  less  superior,  to  what  it  now  is, 
either  in  perfection  of  blood,  stoutness  of  constitution,  symmetry,  beauty,  size, 
speed,  or  bottom. 

But  I  will  not  anticipate ;  this  portion  of  the  subject  will  be  considered  in  a  dif- 
ferent place  ;  and  now,  after  a  few  general  remarks  on  the  now  existing  thorough 
blood  of  the  English  horse,  I  shall  pass  to  that  of  America,  which  is  identical  with 
it,  unless  in  so  far  as  it  may  have  been  acted  on  by  the  influences  of  cUmate,  or  the 
mode  of  handling  and  treatment. 


94  THE   HORSE. 

From  the  reign  of  James  I. 
racing  and  of  tlie  English  race-liorse  may  be  held  to  commence, 
althongh  no  existing  pedigrees  trace  so  far  back. 

I  ilnd  a  curious  notice  in  Brandt's  popular  antiquities,  which 
appears  to  relate  to  this  period,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  con- 
text ;  the  date  of  Misson's  travels  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to 
ascertain,  but  the  collocation  of  the  sentences  seems  to  indicate 
that  it  was  prior  to  1641. 

"  Misson,  in  his  travels  in  England,  translated  by  Ozell, 
p.  231,  says :  '  The  English  nobility  take  great  delight  in  horse- 
races. The  most  famous  are  usually  at  J^ewmarket,  and  there 
you  are  sure  to  see  a  great  many  persons  of  the  first  quality, 
and  almost  all  the  gentlemen  of  the  neighborhood.  It  is  pretty 
common  for  them  to  lay  wagers  of  two  thousand  pounds  sterling 
upon  one  race.  I  have  seen  a  horse  after  having  run  twenty 
miles  in  fifty-five  minutes,  upon  ground  less  even  than  that 
where  the  races  are  run  at  Newmarket,  and  won  the  wager  for 
his  master,  would  have  been  able  to  run  anew  without  taking 
breath,  if  he,  that  had  lost,  had  ventured  to  run  again.  There 
are  also  races  run  by  men.' 

"  In  Ilinde's  Life  of  Master  John  Bruen,  a  Puritan  of  great 
celebrity,  1641,  p.  104,  the  author  recommends  '  unto  many  of 
our  gentlemen,  and  to  many  of  inferior  rank,  that  they  would 
give  over  their  foot-races,  and  horse-races,  &c.' 

"A  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  Protector  Cromwell,  8tli 
April,  1658,  'prohibiting  horse-races  in  England  and  Wales 
for  eight  months.' " 

I  have  extracted  the  three  quotations,  though  it  is  the  first 
only,  which  I  especially  regard  in  this  place — supposing  it  to 
have  some  relation  to  '"the  absurdly  long  and  cruel  distances" 
of  Mr.  Youatt — in  order  to  show  how  their  relative  bearing 
would  aj^pear  to  countenance  the  idea  of  its  date  being  that  of 
King  James  I.  or  early  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I. 

It  is,  and  is  acknowledged  and  admitted  to  be,  a  fact,  that 
Barbs  and  Turkish  horses  had,  long  before  the  period  of  the 
commonwealth,  been  imported  into  England — although  with 
the  exception  of  the  horse,  mentioned  before  as  introduced  by 
Alexander  I.  of  Scotland — the  Markham  Arabian  is  probably 
the  first  of  this  strain  ever  brought  into  the  British  Isles ;  yet 


TURKISH   HOKSES    IN    ENGLAND.  95 

I  cannot,  myself,  perceive  wlierefore  the  rejection  of  this  Arab 
should  be  charged,  as  it  generally  appears  now  to  be,  as  an 
error,  against  the  Marquis  of  Newcastle,  the  same  who  gallant- 
ly commanded  for  the  king  at  Marston  Moor,  and  would  have 
won  for  him  his  battle,  and  perhaps  his  crown,  but  for  the  mad 
and  selfish  impetuosity  of  Kupert. 

This  is,  however,  nothing  to  the  point,  however  much  it  may 
be  so  that  he  was  considered  the  best  horseman  and  the  best 
judge  of  horses  of  his  day,  and  that  he  has  left,  as  a  legacy  to 
posterity  and  a  bounty  to  all  those  who  love  that  noble  animal, 
incomparably  the  best  old  English  work  on  the  horse. 

It  is  now  pretty  generally  admitted  that,  whether  Barb, 
Turk,  Syrian,  or  Arab  of  the  desert  proper,  all  oriental  blood 
has  had  its  share  and  influence  in  reinvigorating  the  blood  of 
the  English  thoroughbred,  and  giving  to  it  those  peculiar  qual- 
ities which  cause  it,  with  justice,  at  this  day,  to  be  esteemed 
the  best,  completest,  and  most  perfect  animal  in  the  world. 

In  what  degree  these  animals  have  ministered  to  our  now 
dominant  strain,  is  by  no  means  to  be  ascertained  ;  but  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  most  of  the  early  imported  foreign  stallions  were 
not  Eastern  Arabs. 

During  the  protectorate,  Oliver  Cromwell,  who,  though  he 
was  compelled  by  the  necessity  of  conciliating  the  absurd  pre- 
judices of  the  Puritans,  to  forbid  racing,  was  yet  an  ardent 
lover  of  the  horse,  and  an  earnest  promoter  and  j)atron  of  all 
that  belongs  to  horsemanship,  purchased  of  Mr.  Place,  after- 
wards his  stud-master,  the  celebrated  "  White  Turk  " — still  re- 
corded as  the  most  beautiful  south-eastern  horse  ever  brought 
into  England,  and  the  oldest  to  which  our  present  strain  refers. 
To  him  succeeds  Yilliers,  duke  of  Buckingham,  his  Helmsley 
Turk,  and  to  him  Fairfax's — the  same  great  statesman  and 
brave  soldier,  who  fought  against  Newcastle  at  Marston — Mo- 
rocco Barb. 

And  to  these  three  horses. it  is  that  the  English  race-horse  of 
the  old  time  chiefly  owes  its  purity  of  blood,  if  we  except  the 
royal  mares.,  specially  imported  by  Charles  II.,  to  which  it  is — 
mythically,  rather  than  justly — held  that  all  English  blood 
should  trace. 

Of  all  succeeding  importations,  those,  which  are  principally 


96  THE  iioitsE. 

known  and  referred  to,  as  having  notoriously  amended  our 
horse — by  proof  of  stock  begotten  of  superior  qualities,  and 
victorious  on  the  turf  through  long  generations — but  few  are 
true  Arabs. 

We  have,  it  is  true,  the  Darley  Arabian,  the  Leeds  Arabian, 
Honey  wood's  White,  the  Oglethorpe,  the  Newcome  Bay  Moun- 
tain, the  Damascus,  Cullen's  Brown,  the  Chestnut,  the  Lonsdale 
Bay,  Combe's  Gray  and  Bell's  Gray  Arabians ;  but  what  is 
generally  called  the  Godolphin  A/'aMan,  as  it  seems  now  to  be 
the  i^revailing  opinion — his  origin  not  being  actually  ascer- 
tained— was  a  Barb,  not  an  Arab  from  Arabia  proper.  Against 
these,  again,  we  find  Place's  White  Turk,  D'Arcey's  Turk,  the 
Yellow  Turk,  Lister's  or  the  Straddling  Turk,  the  Byerly  Turk, 
the  Selaby  Turk,  the  Acaster  Turk ;  Curwen's  Bay  Barb,  Comp- 
ton's  Barb,  the  Thoulouse  Barb,  Layton's  Barb  Mare,  great- 
great-grandam  of  Miss  Layton ;  the  Koyal  Mares,  which  were 
Barbs  from  Tangier,  and  many  other  Barb  horses,  not  from  the 
Eastern  desert,  heading  the  pedigrees  of  our  best  horses. 

In  this  connection,  I  would  observe  that  the  very  reasons  for 
which  the  Marquis  of  Newcastle  condemned  the  Markham  Ara- 
bian— viz.,  that  when  regularly  trained  he  could  do  nothing 
against  race-horses — on  account  of  which  condemnation  he  has 
i-eceived  a  sneer  or  a  slur  from  every  writer  w^lio  has  discussed 
the  subject,  are  those  which,  at  this  very  moment,  prevent 
prudent  breeders  from  having  recourse  to  oriental  blood  of  any 
kind. 

They  cannot  run  or  last  against  the  English  horse.  They 
have  not  the  size,  the  bone,  the  muscle,  or  the  shape,  if  we  ex- 
cept the  beautiful  head,  the  fine  neck,  thin  withers,  and  admira- 
bly long,  deep  and  sloping  shoulders,  which  are  the  inevitable 
characteristics  of  the  race.  Therefore,  all  men  who  breed  with 
an  eye  to  profit, — and  howsoever  it  might  have  been  in  the 
olden  times  of  the  Turf,  there  are  few  now  who  have  not  an 
eye  to  it,  either  as  hoping  to  win  oji  the  turf,  or  to  ]>roduce  sala- 
ble stock — prefer  to  jDut  their  mares  to  known  English  winning 
liorses,  proved  getters  of  winners,  of  unquestioned  bottom  and 
stoutness,  rather  than  to  try  stallions  of  the  desert  blood,  con- 
cerning Avhich  nothing  is  known  beyond  the  attested  pedigree, 
and  the  visible  shapes 


BAKB   'VS.    ARAB.  97 

All  this  being  considered,  and  especially  tlie  fact  that  there 
is  more  Turk  and  Barb  than  real  Arabian  blood  in  the  present 
race,  when  it  is  admitted  also  that  ISTewcastle  was  a  consummate 
horseman,  I  think  it  quite  as  well  to  hear  what  he  has  to  say  for 
himself,  and  not  to  continue  uttering,  what  Mr.  Carlyle  would 
call  inarticulate  howls  over  what  cannot,  at  all  events,  now  be 
helped,  and  perhaps  was  not  any  harm  in  the  beginning. 

"  I  never  saw,"  says  he,  ed.  of  1667,  p.  73,  "  but  one  of  these 
horses,  which  Mr.  John  Markham,  a  merchant,  brought  over, 
and  said  he  was  a  right  Arabian.  He  was  a  bay,  but  a  little 
horse,  and  no  rarity  for  shape,  for  I  have  seen  many  English 
horses  far  finer.  Mr.  Markham  sold  him  to  King  James  for  five 
hundred  pounds,  and  being  trained  up  for  a  course,  when  he 
came  to  run,  every  horse  beat  him." 

Of  this  statement,  Mr.  Youatt,  who  decides  ex  cathedra  that 
the  Marquis's  opinion  was  "  probably  altogether  erroneous  " — 
one  does  not  see  why  so,  unless  because,  on  all  other  points,  it 
is  almost  invariably  sound — makes  quite  a  diiferent  one,  ascrib- 
ing to  the  old  writer  a  dictum,  which  he  uses  not,  namely,  that 
"  this  Arabian  was  a  little  hony  horse."  The  introduction  of  the 
word  hony,  carries  much  with  it ;  so  much  that  in  all  likeli- 
hood, if  the  horse  had  been  bony,  the  Marquis  might  have 
held  a  different  opinion  concerning  the  propriety  of  breeding 
from  him. 

As  it  is,  we  can  only  hold  that  his  view  was  a  correct  one  ; 
the  horse  when  tried  could  not  run,  and  when  examined  as  to 
form  was  found  inferior.  For  these  causes,  he  was  ruled  out  as 
a  stock  getter.  So  would  any  horse  be  ruled  out  to-day,  if  he 
were  an  Arab  bearing  visibly  on  his  forehead  the  seal  of  King 
Solomon  himself,  or  if  he  were  an  English  thoroughbred,  de- 
scended, through  all  the  time-honored  magnates  of  the  Turf, 
from  that  most  unimpeachable  of  all  attainable  ends,  an  im- 
ported Eastern  sire,  and  a  royal  mare. 

It  is,  I  think,  worthy  of  notice,  that  Newcastle,  who  was  a 
scholar,  a  travelled  man,  an  observer  and  a  gentleman,  as  well  as 
a  soldier  and  a  horseman,  distinctly  records  his  preference  of  the 
Spanish  horse  to  any  other  strain  of  blood  existing  in  his  time, 
and  in  doing  so  directly  refers  to  the  Barb,  for  service,  though 
not  in  those  terms,  as  a  racing  stallion.  And  it  is  observable, 
Vol.  I.— 7. 


98  Till!;  iioKtjK. 

that  the  veiy  authors  wlio  attack  him,  borrow  his  descriptions 
of  the  various  races,  without  acknowledgment, 

"  And  the  Marquis  of  Serai vo  " — says  he,  in  his  preface- — 
"  Master  of  horse  to  his  Highness,  and  Governor  of  the  castle 
of  Antwerp,  told  his  Highness,  that  he  had  asked  me,  '  what 
horses  I  liked  best  ? '  and  that  I  had  answered,  '  there  were 
good  and  bad  of  all  nations ;  but  that  the  Barbs  were  the  gen- 
tlemen of  the  horse  kind,  and  Spanish  horses,  the  princes.' " 

In  commenting,  afterward,  on  the  various  races,  and  their 
fitness  for  the  stud,  he  thus  speaks  of  the  Spanish  horse,  and 
thus  of  the  Barb.  I  quote  these  various  j)assages,  for  two  rea- 
sons, which  I  shall  explain  hereafter.  "  If  he  be  well  chosen, 
I  assure  you  he  is  the  noblest  horse  in  the  world.  First,  there 
is  no  horse  so  curiously  shaped,  all  over  from  head  to  croup. 
He  is  the  most  beautiful  that  can  be.  For  he  is  not  so  thin  and 
ladylike  as  the  Barb,  nor  so  gross  as  the  Neapolitan ;  but  be- 
tween both.  He  is  of  great  spirit,  and  of  great  courage,  and 
docile ;  hath  the  proudest  walk,  the  proudest  trot,  and  best  ac- 
tion in  his  trot ;  the  loftiest  gallop,  the  swiftest  careers,  and  is 
the  lovingest  and  gentlest  horse,  and  fittest  for  a  king  in  a  day 
of  triumph  to  show  himself  to  his  people,  or  in  the  head  of  an 
army,  of  any  horse  in  the  world. 

"  Therefore,  there  is  no  horse  so  fit  to  breed  on,  as  a  Span- 
iard ;  either  for  the  manege,  tlie  war,  am^bling  for  the  pad, 
hunting,  or  for  running.  Conqueror  was  of  a  Spanish  horse., 
Shotten  Herring  was  of  a  Spanish  horse.  Butler  was  of  a 
Spanish  iiorse,  and  Peacock  was  of  a  Spanish  mare ;  and  these 
beat  all  the  horses  in  their  time,  so  much  as  no  horse  ever  ran 
near  them. 

"  I  say  he  is  absolutely  the  best  stallion  in  the  world,  for  all 
these  things  I  have  formerly  named,  if  you  do  wisely  appro- 
priate such  mares  to  him,  as  shall  be  fit  for  uses  such  as  you 
would  have  your  breed,  and  so  he  is  fit  for  all  breeds,  except  to 
breed  cart  horses. 

"  The  king  of  Spain  hath  many,  but  his  best  is  at  Cordova 
in  Andalusia,  where  he  hath  above  three  hundred  mares  and 
colts,  as  my  Lord  Cottington  told  me  ;  and  besides  those  of  his 
majesty,  there  are  other  most  excellent  races,  not  only  of  noble- 
men, but  also  of  private  gentlemen." 


THE    BARB.  99 

jN'ext,  in  position,  speaking  of  the  Barb,  lie  discourses  in  this 
fashion. 

"  The  Barb  is  next  to  the  Spanish  horse  for  wisdom,  but  not 
near  so  wise,  and  that  makes  him  easier  to  be  drest,  besides  he 
is  of  a  gentle  nature,  docile,  nervous  and  light. 

"  He  is  as  fine  a  horse  as  can  be,  but  somewhat  slender,  and 
a  little  ladylike  ;  and  is  so  lazy  and  negligent  in  his  walk  as  he 
will  stumble  in  a  bowling  green  ;  he  trots  like  a  cow,  and  gal- 
lops low,  and  no  action  in  any  of  those  actions.  But  commonly 
he  is  sinewy  and  nervous,  and  hath  a  clear  strength,  is  excellently 
winded  and  good  at  length,  to  endure  great  travel ;  and  very 
apt  to  learn,  and  easy  to  be  drest,  being  for  the  most  part  of  a 
good  disposition,  excellent  apprehension,  judgment,  memory ; 
and  when  he  is  searched  and  wakened,  no  horse  in  the  world 
goes  better  in  the  manege  in  all  ayres  whatsoever,  and  rarely 
upon  the  ground  in  any. 

"  The  mountain  Barbs,  they  say,  are  the  best ;  I  believe  they 
are  the  largest ;  but  for  my  part  I  rather  desire  a  middling 
horse,  or  a  less  horse,  which  are  cheap  enough  in  Barbary,  as 
I  have  been  informed,  both  by  many  gentlemen,  and  many 
merchants." 

Of  the  Fris  horse — that,  I  conceive,  which  we  now  term  the 
Flemish  or  Flanders  horse,  he  says — 

"  He  is  hardy,  and  can  live  on  any  thing,  and  will  endure 
either  heats  or  colds  ;  and  on  no  horse  whatsoever  does  a  man 
appear  more  a  swordsman,  than  on  this  horse,  being  so  quiet, 
so  bold,  and  so  assured. 

"  He  is  also  manly,  and  fit  for  any  thing  but  running  away  ; 
though  he  will  run  fast  for  a  while,  yet  I  doubt  not  long ;  be- 
cause his  wind  is  not  like  a  Barb  ;  yet  a  heavy  man  well  armed 
upon  a  Barb,  and  the  same  weight  upon  a  Dutch  horse,  the 
Dutch  horse's  strength  is  so  much  above  the  Barb's,  as  compared 
thus,  I  believe  the  Dutch  horse  may  run  as  fast  and  as  long  as 
the  Barb  ;  for  the  Barb's  wind  serveth  to  no  purpose,  when  his 
strength  is  not  able  to  carry  his  weight." 

On  these  passages  I  would  observe,  what  will  be  yet  more 
decidedly  apparent  when  I  come  to  quote  from  the  same  writer 
his  remarks  on  the  English  horse,  that  it  is  quite  too  absurd  to 
endeavor  to  ignore  or  set  aside  his  reasonings,  as  if  he  were 


100  THE    IIOKSE. 

ignorant,  or  careless  in  giving  his  judgment,  because  lie  lived 
above  two  centuries  ago  ;  when  we  hnd  that,  in  every  respect, 
he  rests  his  judgment  on  precisely  the  same  grounds  on  which 
the  wisest  and  best  judges  of  the  present  day,  with  all  the  lights 
of  science  and  all  the  statistics  of  two  hundred  years  to  guide 
them,  would  determine  their  choice  of  a  stallion,  to  which  they 
should  put  their  choice  blood  mares — temper,  spirit,  form  and 
'performance. 

The  last  word  I  use  in  its  largest  and  most  comprehensive 
term,  performance  in  the  stud,  as  well  as  performance  in  the 
field.  For  it  is  not  every  performer  on  the  turf,  that  is  a  per- 
former in  the  stud. 

Many  of  the  greatest  winners  have  utterly  failed  to  beget 
winners.  Catton,  the  stoutest  and  hardest  horse  of  his  day,  in 
England,  always  got  soft  ones.  In  America,  Chateau-Margaux, 
the  most  honest  horse  and  best  four-miler,  on  the  British  turf, 
and,  therefore,  thought  peculiarly  suited  for  American  stock- 
getting,  has  scarcely  got  a  winner.  Priam,  the  crack  of  his  day, 
winner  of  the  Derby,  and  should  have  been  winner  of  the  Leger 
also,  but  for  the  accident  of  mud  hock  deep  which  gave  the  race 
to  the  worthless  Birmingham,  has  not  only  not  improved,  but 
actually  deteriorated  the  racing  blood  of  America,  as  regards 
form  and  power  wherever  he  has  altered  it. 

Yet  both  these  horses  were  of  unquestionable  blood,  and, 
except  that  Priam  was  too  leggy  for  my  taste — though  I  have 
heard  him  called,  and  that  by  judges  too,  the  perfection  of 
horseflesh  —  were  both  eminently  sound  and  finely  formed 
horses. 

The  old  Marquis,  however,  prefers  the  Spanish  horse,  he 
tells  us,  after  his  temper,  shape,  and  blood,  because  he  is  him- 
self a  winner  and  a  sure  getter  of  winners. 

This  is  the  true  test— the  winner,  who  gets  winners,  is  the 
horse  from  which  to  breed. 

And  this  brings  me  to  anotlier  point.  It  will  be  admitted 
now  beyond  a  doubt,  that  any  practical  and  prudent  breeder  of 
the  day  would  prove  his  prudence  and  practice  by  choosing  an 
undeniable  English  stallion — say,  for  example  Glencoe,  himself 
a  great  winner,  and  j^erhaps  the  greatest  modern  getter  of  win- 


ESTABLISHMENT    OF   THE    ENGLISH   TURF.  101 

ners,  before  any  unknown,  teclinicallj  speaking,  darlc^  Arab  or 
Barb  liorse,  however  beautiful,  that  slionld  now  be  imported. 

The  same  was,  then,  the  opinion  of  a  great  breeder  and 
greater  rider  in  his  day,  founded  as  it  seems  on  experience,  for 
any  thing  except  race-horses,  if  not  for  race-horses — in  speaking 
of  breeding  especially  for  the  turf,  he  afterward  gives  the  pre- 
ference to  the  Barb. 

Now,  it  seems  to  me  more  than  possible,  more  even  than 
probable,  that  there  was  in  those  days,  in  Spain,  a  breed  of  the 
best  Spanish  horses,  which  might  trace  directly,  or  as  nearly 
directly  as  the  best  English  horses  now  do,  to  oriental  dam  and 
oriental  sire ;  and  that,  consequently,  there  may  have  been  as 
just  a  reason  for  preference  of  the  then  Spanish  to  the  then 
Eastern  stallion,  as  there  is  for  that  of  the  present  English 
thoroughbred  to  the  present  untried  courser  of  the  Desert ;  and 
that,  therefore,  there  may  be  in  the  present  pure  blood-horse  of 
Great  Britain  and  America,  yet  another  unsuspected  cross  of 
pure  Desert  blood,  from  an  unsuspected  source. 

In  the  reign  of  which  the  Marquis  of  Newcastle  writes,  that 
of  Charles  11.,  the  English  Turf  was  for  the  first  time  fairly 
established.  That  king  sent  his  master  of  the  horse  to  the  Le- 
vant especially  to  import  both  mares  and  stallions,  and  it  is 
through  these  females,  kno^vn  as  the  royal  mares,  that  our  pre- 
sent race-horse  draws  his  claim  to  pure  blood,  since  it  is  evident 
that,  but  for  these,  there  must  have  been  in  all,  as  there  is 
undeniably  in  some,  of  the  best  English  thoroughbreds,  an 
infinitesimal  taint  of  common,  or  at  least  of  improved  blood. 
Eor,  though  one  were  to  cross  the  pure  blood  of  the  Desert  ten 
thousand  times  on  the  produce  of  a  common-bred  dam,  one 
fraction  of  a  drop  of  the  impure  blood  must  remain  there  ad 
infinitum. 

Perhaps  it  may  appear  paradoxical  in  me  to  say  so,  but  I 
must  say,  that  I  believe  the  undoubted  superiority  of  the 
thoroughbred  English  and  American  blood-horse  to  come  from 
the  very  existence  of  this  mixture  of  various  crosses  with  the 
oriental  blood. 

A  remarkable  calculation  has  been  entered  into  by  a  very 
clever  and  observant  modern  writer  on  the  horse,  "  Cecil,"  to 
whom  I  gladly  record  my  obligation,  to  prove  how  extremely 


102  THE    HORSE. 

small  a  quantum  of  any  given  blood  remains,  after  a  given 
nnmber  of  crosses,  in  the  veins  of  any  animal ;  yet  how  vastly 
that  minimum  quantity  affects  the  quality  of  the  descendant. 

"  The  pedigrees  of  many  horses  of  celebrity,"  he  says,  "  may 
be  traced  back  to  Childers,  the  Darley  Arabian,  and  other 
worthies  of  that  date  ;  but  where  there  is  only  one  direct  line 
of  descent,  the  following  calculation  will  show  how  little  of  the 
blood  flows  in  the  veins  of  the  present  generation.  It  may  be 
considered  that  these  horses  flourished  about  a  century  ago,  and 
taking  ten  years  as  a  generation,  a  lineal  descendant  of  a  horse 
of  that  period  only  possesses  ^  oV*  portion  of  the  blood. 


The  1st  cross  had 

i 

The  6th 

2nd 

u 

i 

Yth 

3rd 

(( 

i 

8th 

4th 

u 

tV 

9th 

5th 

a 

■32 

10th 

Farther  crosses  diminish  it  in  a  still  more  striking  degree. 

I  now  come  to  the  Marquis  of  Newcastle's  last  piece  of  ad- 
vice to  breeders  ;  and  after  briefly  showing,  by  the  example  of 
a  few  illustrious  horses  to  which,  more  or  less  directly,  our  best 
American  blood  traces,  how  implicitly  liis  advice  has  been  fol- 
lowed, I  shall  conclude  my  history  of  the  English  horse,  with 
the  pedigree  of  the  far-famed  Eclipse  ;  and  those  of  three  or 
four  others,  notable  as  the  sources  of  the  best  American  blood. 

"  If  you  would  have  mares  to  breed  running  horses  of,  then 
they  must  be  shaped  thus  ;  as  light  as  possible,  large  and  long, 
but  well  shaped,  a  short  back  but  long  sides,  and  a  little  long- 
legged  ;  their  breast  as  narrow  as  may  be,  for  so  they  will  gallop 
the  lighter  and  nimbler,  and  run  the  faster,  for  the  lighter  and 
thinner  your  breed  for  galloping  the  better.  Your  stallion  by 
any  means  must  be  a  Barb,  and  somewhat  of  the  shape  that  I 
have  described  the  mares  to  be  of.  For  a  Barb,  that  is  a  jade, 
will  get  a  better  running  horse  than  the  best  running  horse  in 
England ;  as  Sir  John  Fenwick  told  me,  who  had  more  expe- 
rience in  running  horses,  then  any  man  in  all  England.  For 
he  had  more  rare  running  horses  than  all  England  beside,  and 
the  most  part  of  all  the  famous  running  horses  in  England  that 
ran,  one  against  another,  were  of  his  race  and  breed. 


OEIENTAL    HORSES.  103 

"  Some  commend  the  Tm-ks  very  much  for  a  stallion  to  breed 
running  horses,  but  they  are  so  scarce  and  rare,  that  I  can  give 
no  judgment  of  them  ;  and  therefore  I  advise  you  to  the  Barb, 
which  I  believe  is  much  the  better  horse  to  breed  running 
horses." 

On  this  passage  I  have  only  to  remark,  that  the  observations 
on  the  shape  of  the  brood  mares  are  to  be  taken  as  comparative, 
not  positive,  and  that  the  comparison  is  instituted  not  as  of 
thoroughbred  with  thoroughbred,  but  as  of  thoroughbred  with 
the  coarse  common  heavy  mare  of  the  day,  and  it  w^ould  seem 
to  follow,  that  the  preference  of  the  Marquis  for  the  Barb  is 
fully  borne  out  by  the  pedigree  of  Eclipse,  in  which  it  will  be 
seen  there  is  but  one  genuine  Arabian,  all  the  other  oriental 
strains  being  either  Barb  or  Turk,  of  one  of  which  stocks,  it 
is  w^ell  ascertained  that  all  the  royal  mares  of  Charles  II.  are 
derived.* 

*  The  following  list  comprises  some  of  the  earliest  recorded  importations  of 
Oriental  stallions  into  England,  with  notices  of  their  stock  as  far  as  known. 
Markham's  Arabian,  Temp.  James  I. 

Failed  as  a  racer.     His  stock,  if  any,  unknown. 
Plaice's  White  Turk,  ^ 

The  Morocco  Barb,     V  Temp.  Commonwealth. 
The  Helmsley  Turk,    ) 
To  one  or  other  of  these  many  of  the  best  horses  in  England  and  America 
directly  trace.     To  the  last.  Eclipse  and  Highflyer,  in  the  female  line. 
The  Damascus  Arabian.  j 

Three  Turks,  from  Hamburgh,  1684,  V  Temp.  Charles  II. 
The  royal.  Barb  or  Turkish,  mares.      ) 
To  the  latter,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  every  celebrated  hoi-se  in  England  or 
America,  in  some  sort  traces  a  portion  of  his  blood. 

Evelyn,  in  his  Memoirs,  vol.  I.,  p.  577,  thus  describes  the  Turkish  horses  from 
Hamburgh  : — 

"  Early  this  morning  I  went  into  St.  James's  Park  to  see  these  Turkish  or  Asian 
horses,  newly  brought  over,  and  now  first  showed  to  his  majesty.  There  were  four, 
but  one  died  at  sea,  being  three  weeks  coming  from  Hamborowe.  They  were  taken 
from  a  Bashaw,  at  the  siege  of  Vienna,  at  the  late  famous  raising  that  leaguer.  I 
never  beheld  so  delicate  a  creature  as  one  of  them,  of  somewhat  a  bright  bay,  two 
white  feet,  a  blaze  ;  such  a  head,  eyes,  ears,  neck,  breast,  belly,  haunches,  legs,  pas- 
terns, and  feet,  in  all  regards  beautiful  and  proportioned  to  admiration ;  spirited, 
proud,  nimble,  making  halt,  turning  with  that  swiftness,  and  in  so  small  a  compass 
as  was  admirable.  *  *  *  They  trotted  like  does,  as  if  they  did  not  feel  the 
ground  ;  500  guineas  was  demanded  for  the  first ;  300  for  the  second,  and  200  for 
the  third,  which  was  brown.  All  of  them  were  choicely  shaped,  but  the  two  last 
not  altogether  so  perfect  as  the  first." 


104  THE    IIOESE. 


"  Cecil "  speaks,  in  conclusion,  thus,  and  with  no  passage  can  I 

It  is  not,  I  believe,  known  what  became  of  these  horses,  or  what  stock  they 
produced. 

The  Byerly  Turk,  ) 

Lister's  or' the  StraddHng  Turk,  \  Te"^?-  ^'^^'^^  H- 

Both  these  horses  produced  good  stock.  The  latter  "Brisk,"  "Snake,"  and 
other  celebrated  stallions. 

The  Darley  Arabian,    j 

Curwen's  Barb,  V  Temp.  Queen  Anne. 

Lord  Carlisle's  Turk,    ) 

Tlie  former,  sire  of  Flying  Childers,  and  the  most  famous  progenitor,  on  the 
whole,  ever  imported — the  latter  sire  of  the  Bald  Galloway,  and  other  famoua 
horses. 

The  Godolphin  Arabian,  Temp.  George  II. 

sire  of  Blank,  Regulus,  &c.,  &c.,  and  the  last  Oriental  horse,  from  which  the  British 
turf  has  derived  permanent  or  positive  advantage.  The  Winter  Arabian  did  Httle 
or  nothing  for  the  improvement  of  our  blood,  and  the  Wellesley  Arabian — which  ia 
said,  however,  to  have  been  neither  perfect  Arabian  nor  perfect  Barb — got  but  one 
offspring,  fair  Ellen,  of  even  ordinary  pretensions  on  the  turf  Sampson  and  Bay 
Malton,  though  the  best  horses  of  their  day,  had  both  a  strain  of  base  blood. 

I  have  yet  to  learn  that  any  of  the  Eastern  horses  sent  to  this  country — three  to 
Gen.  Jackson,  in  1833  or  1834,  by  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  several  by  the  Sultan  of  Mus- 
cat in  1839,  one  imported,  I  believe  from  Tripoli,  by  the  late  Commodore  Elliott, 
and  others — have  done  any  thing  to  maintain  their  repute  as  stock-getters. 

I  myself  owned  a  large  chestnut  stalHon,  above  16  hands  in  height,  by  one  of  the 
former,  Zilcaadi,  out  of  a  Sweetbriar  mare,  which  had  a  fair  turn  of  speed,  though 
not  such  as  to  justify  training  him.  He  had  power,  and  was  a  fine  fencer,  so  that  I 
had  designed  training  him  for  the  Montreal  hurdle  races  in  1838,  when  he  was  in- 
curably lamed  by  the  carelessness  of  a  groom.  He  was  sold  and  sent  to  the  Havana, 
as  a  stallion,  but  what  became  of  him,  or  what  he  did,  I  know  not.  This  is  the  only 
Eastern  bred  horse  I  have  ever  known  in  the  United  States. 

The  following  list  shows  the  number  of  all  the  foreign  and  all  the  most  celebrated 
native  stallions,  descended,  more  or  less  remotely,  from  Arabian  or  African  strains, 
which  were  covering  in  England  in  1730,  from  which  date  the  use  of  Oriental  stock 
began  to  decline,  as  it  has  continued  to  do  gradually  until  the  present  day,  when  it 
seems  to  be  the  fact  that  the  English  thorough  blood  is  no  longer  susceptible  of  im- 
provement by  a  farther  infusion  of  Oriental  blood. 

FOEEIGN  STALLIONS,  IN  17.30. 

The  Alcock  Arabian,  The  Godolphin  Arabian, 

The  Bloody  Buttocks  Arabian,  Hall's  Arabian, 

The  Bloody  Shouldered  Arabian,  Johnson's  Turk, 

The  Belgrade  Turk,  Litton's  Arabian, 

The  Bethel  Arabian,  Matthew's  Persian, 

Lord  Burlington's  Barb,  Nottingham's  Arabian, 

Croft's  Egyptian  horse,  Newton's  Arabian, 

The  Cypress  Arabian,  Pigott's  Turk, 


BUSTLER.  105 

more  fittingly  close  mj  history  of  the  blood  of  the  present  Eng- 
lish race-horse,  except  it  be  by  the  pedigree  of  its  noblest  son" 

"  Tlie  Eoyal  mares  ! "  says  he,  "  from  one  of  which  in  the 
maternal  line  the  genealogy  of  Eclipse  is  traced.  The  pedigree 
of  his  sire,  Marske,  is  somewhat  obscure  ;  it  goes  back  through 
eight  generations  to  a  daughter  of  Bustler,  but  how  her  dam 
was  bred  there  is  no  authority  to  decide.  It  may  be  conjec- 
tured that  she  was  descended  from  some  of  the  worthies  which 
distinguished  themselves  on  the  course  in  the  reign  of  James  I. 
There  are  several  examples  of  a  similar  nature  traceable  in  the 
stud-book,  which  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  during  the  early 
periods  of  breeding  for  the  turf,  mares  used  for  ordinary  pur- 
poses were  occasionally  selected  in  case  they  evinced  speed  and 
stoutness,  without  reference  to  their  oriental  pedigrees. 

''The  pedigree  of  Highflyer  affords  a  similar  instance  to 
that  of  Eclipse,  and  singular  to  relate,  runs  precisely  into  the 
same  strain  of  blood.  On  his  dam's  side  he  can  be  traced  to  a 
royal  mare,  but  in  the  paternal  line  his  genealogy  terminates  in 
a  mare,  which  produced  a  filly  from  Bustler,  Mdiich  horse  was  a 
son  of  the  Helmsley  Turk. 

"  Although  there  are  scarcely  any  horses  on  the  turf  at  the 


The  Duke  of  Devonshire's  Arabian, 

Strickland's  Arabian, 

Greyhound,  a  Barb, 

Wynn's 

Arabian. 

Hampton  Court 

grey  Barb, 

Dodsworth,  a  Barb. 

NATIVE  STALLIONS,  IN  1730. 

Aleppo, 

Doctor, 

Jigg, 

Almanzor, 

Dunkirk, 

Lamprey, 

Astridge  BaU, 

Easby  Snake, 

Leedes, 

Bald  Galloway, 

Fox, 

Marricle, 

Bartlett's  Childers, 

Foxcub, 

Oysterfoot, 

Basto, 

Graeme's  Champior 

Partner, 

Bay  Bolton, 

Grey  Childers, 

Royal, 

Blacklegs, 

Grey  Crofts, 

Shuffler, 

Bolton  Starling, 

Hampton  Court  Childers, 

Skipjack, 

Bolton  Sweepstakes, 

Harlequin, 

Sraales's  Childers, 

Cartouch, 

Hartley's  Blind  Horse, 

Sorehecls, 

Chaunter, 

Hip, 

Squirrel, 

Childers, 

HobgobUn, 

Tifter, 

Cinnamon, 

Hutton's  Blacklegs 

Trueblue, 

Coneyskins, 

Hutton's  Hunter, 

Woodcock, 

Councillor, 

Jewtrump, 

Wyndham. 

Crab, 

106  THE    HORSE. 

present  day  which  are  not  in  some  degree  descended  from  the 
royal  mares,  it  apj^ears  too  much  to  assert  that  they  all  owe 
their  origin  entirely  to  Eastern  blood. 

"  The  casuist  may,  therefore,  with  consistency  inquire,  "What 
is  a  thoroughbred  horse  ?  The  term  is  accepted  conventionally 
to  signify  a  horse  whose  pedigree  can  be  traced  through  many 
generations,  the  members  of  which  have  signalized  themselves 
on  tlie  turf,  or  have  established  their  reputation  as  progenitors 
of  superior  horses." 

This  is  undoubtedly  the  true  and  practical  reply,  and  such 
the  pedigree  of  Eclipse  will  prove  it  in  plain  truth  to  be.* 

"  The  pedigree  of  Eclii^se  will  likewise  afford  us  another 
curious  illustration  of  the  uncertainty  which  attends  thorough- 
bred horses.  Marske  was  sold  at  the  sale  of  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland's stud  for  a  mere  trifle,  and  was  suffered  to  run  almost 
wild  in  the  New  Forest.  He  was  afterwards  purchased  by  the 
Earl  of  Abingdon,  for  one  thousand  guineas,  and  before  his 
death,  covered  for  one  hundred  guineas.  Squirt,  when  the 
property  of  Sir  Harry  Ilarpur,  was  ordered  to  be  shot,  and, 
while  he  was  actually  leading  to  the  dog  kennel,  he  was  spared 
at  the  intercession  of  one  of  Sir  Harry's  grooms  ;  and  neither 
Bartlett's  Childers,  nor  Snake,  was  ever  trained.     On  the  side 

*  In  1732  was  foaled  Squirt,  who  as  the  sire  of  Mr.  Pratt's  old  mare,  Marske  and 
Syphon — the  former  sire  of  Eclipse,  Shark,  and  an  almost  infinite  number  of  racers — 
certainly  merits  a  peculiar  commemoration. 

Squirt  was  bred  by  a  Mr.  Metcalfe,  near  Beverly  in  the  county  of  New  York, 
and  was  by  Bartlett's,  own  brother  to  Flying  Childer-.  His  dam,  known  by  the 
name  of  "  Metcalfe's  Old  Mare,"  was  bred  by  Mr.  Robinson  of  Easby,  near  Rich- 
mond. She  was  by  Snake,  and  descended  from  the  cross  of  the  D'Arcy  Turk  with 
the  royal  or  Barbary  mares.  Squirt  was  a  fair  good  racer,  but,  fiiUing  into  the 
hands  of  Sir  Harry  Harpur,  he  was  held  in  so  little  repute,  that  once,  when  by  uo 
means  an  old  horse,  he  was  sent  to  the  kennel  to  be  shot.  He  was  reprieved  at  the 
earnest  solicitation  of  Sir  Harry's  groom,  and  subsequently  became  sire  of  Marske, 
Syphon,  and  Pratt's  old  mare.  What  a  void  in  the  annals  of  the  turf  would  that 
bullet  have  produced !  Eclipse  and  all  his  descendants.  Shark,  and  the  numerous 
tribe  of  other  horses  that  sprang  from  Marske — Tandem,  Sweetbriar  and  Sweet- 
wilHam,  sons  of  Syphon  ;  Rockingham,  Walnut,  Gohanna,  &c.,  descended  from  the 
old  mare,  would  have  had  no  existence. 

From  this  date  the  breed  of  the  English  race-horse  may  be  held  to  have  been 
fully  established,  and  thenceforth  has  transmitted  its  progeny  to  be  victorious  in 
every  country,  over  every  native  horse,  to  which  it  has  been  imported,  or  against 
which  it  has  been  pitted. 


PEDIGREE   OF   ECLIPSE.  107 

of  the  dam,  Spiletta  never  started  but  once  and  was  beaten,  and 
the  Godolphin  was  purchased  from  a  water-cart  in  Paris." — 
Smith  on  Breeding. 

The  pedigree  of  Eclipse,  wliich  follows,  is  worthy  of  remark, 
as  showing  a  singular  example  of  in-breeding. 

The  great-grandsire  of  Eclipse  in  the  male  line  is  Bartlett's 
Childers,  who  traces  from  his  dam,  in  the  male  line,  to  Spanker, 
and  in  the  female  to  Spanker  and  his  own  dam  !  Doubly  in- 
cestuous ! 

The  grandmother,  in  the  male  line,  of  his  sire,  Marske, 
traces  on  both  sides  to  Hautboy  ;  and  in  the  female,  once  to  the 
same  horse. 

And  there  are,  in  his  ancestry  in  the  female  line,  three  more 
crosses  of  the  same  animal. 

The  other  English  pedigrees,  which  are  either  taken  entire 
from  the  best  English  authorities,  or  made  up  originally  with 
great  care  from  the  stud  books,  are  those  of  the  horses  to  which 
the  best  American  blood  directly  traces,  in  the  families,  which 
will  be  hereafter  indicated. 


HISTORY 

OF    THE    AMERICAN    HORSE. 

At  a  very  remote  period  in  the  history  of  America,  this  most 
vahiable  of  all  the  animals  subject  to  man,  began  to  be  imported 
from  Europe  by  the  earliest  settlers,  it  being  conceded  that,  al- 
though the  horse  had  at  some  former  time  existed  on  this  con- 
tinent, as  is  proved  by  his  fossil  remains,  he  had  become  extinct 
previous  to  its  colonization  by  the  white  nations. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  the  horses,  which  are  found  in 
a  feral  state  over  the  pampas  of  South  and  the  prairies  of  North 
America,  so  far  east  as  to  the  Mississippi,  are  the  progeny  of 
the  parents  released  by  the  Spaniards  at  the  abandonment  of 
Buenos  Ayres  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  this  date  is  too  recent 
to  be  compatible  with  the  vast  numerical  increase,  and  the 
great  hordes  of  these  animals  now  existing  in  a  state  of  nature  ; 
and  I  should  be  inclined  to  ascribe  their  origin  to  animals  es- 
caped, or  voluntarily  liberated,  in  the  earlier  expeditions  and 
wars  of  the  Spanish  invaders,  the  cavalry  of  that  nation  con- 
sisting entirely  of  j^erfect  horses,  or  mares. 

It  must  have  been  the  case,  in  the  bloody  wars  of  Mexico 
and  Peru,  where  the  battles  more  than  once  went  disastrously 
for  the  Spaniards,  that  war-horses,  their  riders  being  slain,  would 
recover  their  freedom,  and  jDropagate  their  sj)ecies  rapidly,  in  the 
wide,  luxuriant  and  well-watered  plains,  where  the  abundance 
of  food,  the  genial  climate,  and  the  absence  of  beasts  of  prey 
capable  of  coping  with  so  powerful  an  animal  as  the  horse, 
would  favor  their  rapid  increase. 

We  know  that  De  Soto  had  a  heavy  force  of  cavalry  in  that 


FIRST    IMPORTATIONS.  109 

expedition,  in  wliicli  he  discovered  tlie  Mississippi  and  found  a 
grave  in  its  waters ;  and,  when  the  warriors  of  his  party  re- 
turned home  by  water  in  barques,  which  they  built  on  the 
banks  of  tlie  great  river,  it  is  nearly  certain  that  they  must  have 
abandoned  their  chargers  ;  as  it  is  little  probable  that  the  frail 
vessels,  built  by  inexperienced  hands  merely  for  the  purpose  of 
escaping  with  life,  should  have  been  capable  of  containing  the 
horses  of  tlie  fugitives. 

The  first  horses  imported  to  America  for  the  purpose  of  cre- 
ating a  stock,  were  brought  by  Columbus  in  1493,  in  his  second 
voyage  to  the  islands.  The  first  landed  in  the  United  States 
were  introduced  into  Florida  in  1527,  by  Cabeca  de  Yaca,  forty- 
two  in  number,  but  these  all  perished  or  were  killed.  The  next 
importation  was  that  of  De  Soto,  alluded  to  above,  of  which 
many  doubtless  survived,  and  to  which  I  attribute  the  origin  of 
the  wild  horses  of  Texas  and  the  prairies,  strongly  marked  to 
this  day  by  the  characteristics  of  Spanish  blood. 

In  1601,  M.  L'Escarbot,  a  French  lawyer,  brought  horses 
with  other  domestic  animals,  into  Acadia,  and,  in  1608,  the 
French,  extending  their  colonization  into  Canada,  introduced 
horses  into  that  country,  where  the  present  race,  though  it  has 
somewhat  degenerated  in  size,  owing  probably  to  the  inclemency 
of  the  climate,  still  shows  the  blood,  sufficiently  distinct,  of  the 
ITorman  and  Breton  breeds. 

In  1609,  the  English  ships,  landing  at  Jamestown,  brought, 
beside  swine,  sheep  and  cattle,  six  mares  and  a  horse,  and  in  1657 
the  importance  of  increasing  the  stock  of  this  valuable  animal 
was  so  largely  recognized,  that  an  act  was  passed  prohibiting  its 
exportation  from  the  province. 

In  1629,  horses  and  mares  were  brought  into  the  plantations 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  by  Francis  Higginson,  formerly  of  Leices- 
tershire, from  which  county  many  of  the  animals  were  imported. 
New  York  received  its  first  horses  in  1625,  imported  from  Hol- 
land by  the  Dutch  "VYest  India  Company,  probably  of  the 
Flanders  breed,  of  which,  however,  few  traces  seem  to  exist, 
unless  it  be  in  the  Conestoga  horse  of  Pennsylvania,  which,  I 
think,  shows  some  affinity  to  that  breed,  either  directly  or 
through  the  English  dray-horse,  which  is  understood  to  be 
originally  of  Flemish  origin. 


110  THE   HORSE. 

In  1T50,  the  French  of  Illinois  possessed  considerable  num- 
bers of  French  horses,  and,  since  that  time,  as  the  science  of 
agriculture  has  improved  and  advanced,  pure  animals  of  many- 
distinct  breeds  have  been  constantly  imported  into  this  country, 
which  have  created  in  different  sections  and  districts  distinct 
families  easily  recognized  ;  as  the  horses  of  Massachusetts  and 
Vermont,  admirable  for  their  qualities  as  draft  horses,  both 
powerful  and  active,  and  capable  of  quick  as  well  as  heavy- 
work — the  Conestogas,  excellent  for  ponderous  slow  efforts  in 
teaming  and  the  like — and  the  active  wiry  horses  of  the  West, 
well  adapted  for  riding,  and  affording  mounts  to  most  of  the 
American  cavalry.  Although,  however,  these  horses  are  readily 
known — apart,  and  recognized  by  the  eye  of  a  judge,  it  is  not 
always  easy  or  possible  to  assign  the  origin  of  each  breed,  or  to 
trace  out  the  foreign  family  from  which  it  is  derived  ;  as,  until 
recently,  a  lamentable  carelessness  has  existed  as  to  preserving 
the  i^edigrees  of  animals,  which  has  produced  irretrievable  con- 
fusion— while  now,  since  the  value  of  blood  and  hereditary 
qualities  is  every  where  admitted,  a  much  worse  evil  is  begin- 
ning to  show  itself,  in  the  manufacture  of  spurious  pedigrees, 
which  is  becoming  unfortunately  too  common,  and,  owing  to 
the  want  of  properly  kept  and  authenticated  stud-books,  is 
nearly  impossible  of  detection.  It  would  appear  that  there  is 
a  growing  necessity  for  the  enactment  of  some  highly  penal 
statutes,  in  all  the  several  States,  for  the  rej)ression  of  this 
offence,  which  is  not  only  a  most  infamous  sj)ecies  of  swindling, 
but,  in  fact,  an  absolute  act  of  forgery. 

The  unlucky  absence  of  properly  kept  stud-books  has  also 
rendered  it  impossible  to  prove  the  blood  directly  of  many  of 
our  most  celebrated  race-horses  and  stallions,  the  dams  of  which 
have  not  been  duly  recorded.  It  cannot  be  said,  however,  that 
their  lineage  is  doubtful,  though  it  may  be  unknown ;  as  their 
own  qualities  of  speed,  stoutness,  and  their  ability  to  stay  a 
distance,  go  far  to  show  their  claims  to  pure  blood,  while  their 
power  of  transmitting  it  to  their  progeny  proves  it  beyond  a 
peradventure.  For,  although  some  horses,  not  perfectly 
thoroughbred,  have  run  well  themselves,  both  for  speed  and 
endurance,  none  such  have  been  the  sires  and  grandsires  of  dis- 
tinguished winners.     The  power,  therefore  of  transmitting  high 


VAKIOUS    RACES.  HI 

qualities  by  hereditary  descent,  may  be  held  to  prove  the  pos- 
session of  pure  blood  in  the  sire.  The  pedigree  of  American 
Eclipse  cannot  be  absolutely  proved — that  is  to  say,  there  is  a 
doubt  in  his  pedigree,  but  no  proof  of  a  stain  in  his  blood — yet 
no  one  in  his  senses,  looking  to  his  own  performances  and  the 
performances  of  his  get,  can  doubt  his  being  as  thoroughbred  as 
his  English  namesake,  to  whom  he  is  supposed  to  have  been 
connected  on  the  mother's  side. 

It  is  evident  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  original  stock 
of  the  unimproved  American  horse  is  the  result  of  a  mixture 
of  breeds,  the  French,  the  Spanish,  the  Flemish,  and  the  Eng- 
lish horses  having  all  sent  their  representatives  to  some  portion 
or  other  of  the  United  States  and  British  Provinces,  and  proba- 
bly still  prevailing  to  a  considerable  degree  in  some  locations, 
though  nowhere  wholly  unmixed,  while,  in  others,  they  have 
been  so  thoroughly  mixed  and  amalgamated,  that  their  identity 
is  no  longer  discoverable. 

In  'New  York,  it  appears  that  the  early  importations  of 
thorough  blood,  and  the  constant  support  of  horse-racing,  have 
so  changed  the  original  Dutch  or  Flemish  stock,  that  the  char- 
acteristic of  her  horses  is  that  of  the  English  race,  with  a  strong 
cross  of  good  blood.  In  Massachusetts,  Yermont,  and  the 
Eastern  States  generally,  the  Cleveland  Bay,  and  a  cross  be- 
tween that  and  the  English  dray-horse  blood,  with  some  small 
admixture  of  a  thorough  strain,  j)i"edominates.  In  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  most  distinct  breed  appears  to  be  of  Flemish  and 
English  dray-horse  origin.  In  Maryland,  Yirginia,  and  South 
Carolina,  English  thorough  blood  prevails  to  a  great  extent ;  so 
much  so  as  to  render  the  inferior  classes  of  working  horses 
weed}^  and  undersized.  In  Louisiana,  and  many  of  the  Western 
States,  French  and  Spanish  blood  is  prevalent  in  part,  though 
with  a  mixture  of  an  English  strain.  But,  generally,  it  may  be 
assumed  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  thoroughbreds,  there  is 
scarcely  any  breed  in  any  part  of  America  entirely  pure  and 
unmixed,  and  that  there  are  very  few  animals  any  where  which 
have  not  some  mixture,  greater  or  less,  of  the  hot  blood  of  the 
desert,  transmitted  through  the  English  race-horse. 

In  fact,  with  the  exception  of  ihe  Conestoga  horse,  there  is 
in  the  United  States  no  purely  bred  draft  or  cart-horse,  nor  any 


112 


THE    UORSE. 


breed  which  is  kept  entirely  for  field  or  road  labor,  without  a 
view  to  being  used  at  times  for  quicker  work,  and  for  purposes 
of  pleasure  or  travel.  The  same  horse  which  ploughs  or  har- 
rows to-day,  is  harnessed  to-morrow  to  the  sulky  or  the  Jersey 
wagon,  or  the  old-fashioned  New  England  chaise,  or  is  used 
under  saddle,  and  expected  to  make  tolerable  time  by  the 
owner.  Nor,  although  Cleveland  Bays,  and  Suffolk  punches  of 
the  improved  breed  have  been  imported  into  Massachusetts, 
and  left  their  mark  on  the  horses  of  the  Eastern  States,  are  any 
horses  bred  there  without  the  ambition  to  produce  something 
beyond  a  mere  cart-horse,  aspiring  to  draw  a  heavy  load  at  a 
foot's-pace ;  the  use  of  oxen,  which  is  almost  entirely  aban- 
doned in  England,  supplying  the  place  in  the  United  States  of 
mere  weight-haulers ;  so  that  every  horse,  for  the  most  part, 
bred  in  America  is,  or  is  intended  to  be,  in  some  sense,  a  road- 
ster ;  and  it  is  but  fair  to  say  that  for  docility,  temper,  soundness 
of  constitution,  endurance  of  fatigue,  hardiness,  surefooteduess, 
and  speed,  the  American  roadster  is  not  to  be  excelled,  if 
equalled,  by  any  horse  in  the  known  world  not  purely  thorough- 
bred. 

Of  roadsters,  two  or  three  families  have  obtained,  in  different 
localities,  decided  and  probably  merited  reputations  for  different 
peculiar  qualities  ;  such  as  the  Narragansett  Pacers,  the  families 
known  as  the  Morgan  and  Black  Hawk,  the  Canadians,  and 
genei-ally  what  may  be  called  trotters. 

No  one  of  thege,  however,  it  may  be  asserted,  M-itli  the 
single  exception  of  the  Narragansetts,  appears  to  have  any  real 
claim  to  be  held  a  distinctive  family,  or  to  be  regarded  as  capa- 
ble of  transmitting  its  qualities  in  line  of  hereditary  descent, 
by  breeding  within  itself,  without  farther  crosses  with  higher 
and  hotter  blood. 

Of  the  Narragansetts  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  speak  ;  for 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  as  a  distinct  variety,  with  natural 
powers  of  pacing,  they  are  extinct ;  and  their  oi'igin  is,  in  some 
sort,  mythical  and  uncertain. 

The  other  families,  it  is  clear,  owe  their  merits  to  a  remote 
strain  of  thoroughblood,  perhaps  amounting  to  one-fourth,  or 
one-third  part,  some  three  or  four  generations  back. 

Now,  by  all  rules  of  breeding,  based  on  experience  and 


IN-BREEDING.  113" 

reduced  to  certainty,  siich  families  cannot  continue  without 
degeneration,  unless  tliej  are  farther  crossed  with  pure  blood. 
If  mares  of  any  family,  unmixed,  be  stinted  to  unmixed  stallions 
of  the  same  family,  generation  after  generation,  the  result  is  as 
certain  as  it  is  that  the  earth  revolves  on  its.  axis.  The  good 
blood  will  die  out,  and  the  progeny,  sooner  or  later,  become 
degenerate,  weak,  and  worthless. 

Again,  to  breed  stallions  of  such  a  family  to  mares  of  better 
blood  must,  necessarily,  fail ;  for  though  it  has  often  been 
attempted  to  produce  improved  bone  and  power,  by  putting 
blood  mares  to  bony  underbred  stallions,  it  has  never  succeeded, 
and  it  is  now  universally  known  and  conceded  that,  in  order  to 
improve  the  races,  the  sire  must  be  the  superior  animal.  Indeed, 
it  is  argued,  with  much  probability,  that  a  mare  once  crossed 
with  a  sire  of  different  blood,  not  only  produces,  but  'becomes 
herself,  a  cross  ;  and  is  incapable  of  ever  again  producing  her 
own  strain.  Thus  a  thorough  mare,  once  stinted  to  a  cold- 
blooded horse,  could  never  again  bear  the  pure  colt,  even  to  a 
pure  sire ;  while  a  cold-blooded  mare,  having  once  foaled  to  a 
thorough  horse,  would  always  be  improved  as  a  breeder  by  the 
change  produced  in  her  own  constitution.  This  is  a  mysterious 
and  difhcult  subject,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  question  is  not 
fully  sounded ;  I  am  satisfied,  however,  that  there  is  much  in  it, 
and  I  shall  enter  more  largely  into  the  matter  when  I  come  to 
treat  especially  of  breeding ;  as  I  shall  into  the  qualities  alleged 
to  belong  to  these  families,  when  I  come  to  deal  with  them  dis- 
tinctively as  such. 

At  present,  I  only  wish  to  record  it  as  my  opinion,  that  the 
supposed  superiority  of  any  of  these  breeds  is  only  attributable 
to  their  possessing  a  larger  share  than  ordinary  horses  of  pure 
blood,  and  that  this  superiority  cannot  last  without  farther 
admixture. 

Therefore,  while  I  should  expect  no  possible  advantage  from 
breeding  a  Morgan,  or  Messenger,  one-third  part  bred  mare,  to 
a  similarl}'  bred  stallion,  I  should  look  forward  confidently  to  a 
vastly  superior  progeny  by  putting  her  to  a  powerful  sire  of 
pure  blood. 

Again,  by  putting  an  entirely  cold-blooded  mare,  say  of 
l^'orman,  Cleveland  Bay,  or  Flemish  blood,  to  a  Morgan  or 
Vol.  I.— 8 


114  THE    HORSE. 

Messenger,  third-part  horse,  I  should  expect  to  get  an  animal 
improved  above  the  dam,  but  not  so  much  improved  as  I 
should,  had  she  been  put  to  a  properly  selected  animal  of  undis- 
puted blood. 

In  a  word,  unless  I  were  intending  to  breed  dray-horses, 
cart-horses,  or  punches,  I  would  never  put  a  mare  to  a  halt-bred 
sire  at  all ;  and  even  of  these,  excej^ting  the  dray-horse — which 
in  reality  is  an  animal  for  ostentation  and  show,  sanctioned  by 
usage  among  brewers  and  distillers  in  England,  not  for  utility — 
I  am  satisfied,  that  they  would  be  bettered  by  a  cross  of  blood. 

The  original  Canadians  were,  I  have  no  doubt,  of  pure  Nor- 
man and  Breton  descent ;  but,  since  the  Canadas  have  been 
under  British  rule,  they,  too,  have  been  mixed  and  improved 
largely  by  the  introduction  of  a  pure  strain ;  so  that  the  animals, 
which  in  late  years  pass  here  under  the  name  of  Canadians, 
such  as  Moscow,  Lady  Moscow,  and  many  others  of  name,  are 
Canadians  only  by  title,  and  differ  only  from  other  American 
roadsters  in  the  fact,  that  they  have,  it  is  probable,  for  the  most 
part  only  two  crosses,  of  tlie  Norman  and  pure  English  blood, 
while  the  ordinary  road-horse  of  the  United  States  is  perhaps 
a  combination  of  several  English  distinct  families,  with  French, 
Spanish  and  Flemish  crosses,  beside  a  strain  of  thorough  blood. 

Of  trptters  it  is  now  certain  that  there  is  no  distinctive  breed, 
or  family,  or  mode  of  breeding.  The  power,  the  style,  the  ac- 
tion, the  mode  of  going  are  the  things  ;  and  it  is  most  probable 
that  the  speed  and  tlie  endurance  both  of  weight  and  distance 
depend,  more  or  less,  on  the  greater  or  inferior  degree  of  blood 
in  the  animal. 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  in  my  own  mind,  that  allowing 
such  men  as  Hiram  Woodruff,  George'  Spicer,  and  others  of  the 
same  kidney,  to  select  such  horses  as  they  should  pick  for  shape, 
bone,  action,  movement  and  blood,  out  of  tlie  best  hunting  sta- 
bles in  England,  and  to  train  and  drive  them  themselves,  after 
their  own  fashion,  they  would  find  an  equal,  or  even  larger,  pro- 
portion of  animals — owing  to  their  superiority  in  blood — capa- 
ble of  making  as  good  time  as  has  been  made  here.  It  is  to  the 
fact  that  no  favor  has  been  ever  attached  to  trotting,  either  as 
a  national  sport,  or  as  an  amusement  of  the  wealthier  classes — to 
the  fact  that  all  the  best  and  most  promising  animals,  which 


TROTTING    HORSES.  115 

would  in  tliis  country  be  used  on  the  road  or  the  trottiug-course, 
are  there  employed  in  the  hunting  field — to  the  fact;  that  trot- 
ting rules,  trotting-training,  and  trotting-riding,  or  driving,  are 
all,  in  England,  imperfect,  injudicious  and  inferior ;  and  lastly 
to  the  fact,  that  the  animals  used  as  trotters,  themselves  of  in- 
ferior quality,  are  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  persons  of  in- 
ferior means  and  equal  character,  that  must  be  ascribed  the  in- 
feriority of  the  English  trotter ;  no  such  distinction  being  dis- 
coverable against  the  English  hunter,  carriage-horse,  cavalry 
horse,  riding-hack,  or  race-liorse. 

And  it  is  to  the  great  popularity  of  trotting  in  this  country, 
to  the  great  excellence  of  tlie  trotting-trainers,  drivers  and  ri- 
ders, arising  from  that  popularity,  and  to  the  employment  of  all 
the  very  best  half  and  three-quarter-part  bred  horses  in  the  land 
for  trotting  purposes — ^none  being  diverted  from  that  use  for  the 
hunting  field,  or  park-riding — that  we  must  ascribe  the  wonder- 
ful superiority  of  the  American  roadster. 

It  may  be  added,  that  this  view  of  the  subject  is  confirmed 
by  the  fact,  that  in  the  Southern  and  South-western  States, 
where  the  persons  of  wealth  and  horse-owners  are,  for  the  most 
part,  agriculturists  and  rural  proprietors,  rather  than  dwellers  in 
cities,  many  of  them  owners  of  race-horses,  and  most  of  them 
more  or  less  addicted  to  fox-hunting  or  deer  hunting,  trotting  has 
never  taken  root  to  any  thing  like  the  extent  it  has  to  the  North 
and  Eastward ;  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  where  trotting  pre- 
vails, it  is  as  diflicult  to  procure  a  handsome,  well-broken  and 
well-bitted  galloper,  with  stylish  action,  a  good  turn  of  speed,  and 
able  to  stay  a  distance  under  a  weight,  as  it  is  easy  to  find  an 
undeniable  trotter,  of  equal  appearance  and  performance,  that 
shall  go  his  mile  low  down  in  the  thirties,  or  his  fifteen  miles  in 
the  hour,  on  a  square  trot. 

The  efiect  of  all  this,  as  I  have  said,  probably  not  a  little  the 
result  of  the  very  mixture  of  breeds,  has  been  to  produce  in 
America  a  general  horse  for  all  purposes,  omitting  only  the 
hunting-field  and  park,  or  parade-ground — for  which  there  is  no 
demand — that  cannot,  I  think,  be  equalled  in  the  world. 

On  my  first  arrival  in  this  country,  when  the  eye  is  more 
awake  to  distinctions,  than  after  it  has  become  used  by  years  of 
acquaintance  to  what  it  has  daily  before  it,  and  forgetful  of  what 


116  TOE    HORSE. 

it  has  ceased  to  see,  I  was  particularly  struck  by  the  fact  that 
the  American  general  horse,  as  compared  with  the  English 
horse,  Avas  interior  in  height  of  the  forehand,  in  the  loftiness  and 
thinness  of  the  withers,  and  in  the  setting  on  and  carriage  of 
the  neck  and  crest,  while  he  was  superior  in  the  general  devel- 
opment of  liis  quarters,  in  the  let  down  of  his  hams,  and  in  his 
height  behind,  and  farther  remarkable  for  his  formation,  ap- 
proaching to  what  is  often  seen  in  the  Irish  horse,  and  known 
as  the  goose-rump.  I  still  think  that  these  are  prevailing  and 
characteristic  ditferences  of  the  horses  in  the  two  countries. 
Even  in  the  race-horse,  purely  of  English  blood,  I  fancy  that  I 
can  perceive  the  same  distinction  prevailing,  the  American 
racer  standing  very  much  higher  behind,  and  lower  before,  than 
his  English  congener. 

My  judgment  on  this  point  seems  to  be  confirmed  by  an  ex- 
amination of  the  portraits  given  in  tlie  Spirit  of  the  Times  of 
many  celebrated  English  and  American  horses,  by  which  it  ap- 
pears that  Boston,  Wagner,  and  Shark  measured  exactly  the 
same  at  the  withers  and  the  highest  point  of  the  crouj) ;  that 
Bhick  Maria,  in  a  drawing  of  a  little  under  six  and  a  half  inches, 
measures  two-tenths  of  an  inch  loioer  before  than  behind,  while 
all  the  English  horses  are  from  one  to  two-tenths  higher  before. 

To  what  this  difference  in  construction  is  owing,  I  do  not 
pretend  even  to  conje^tr.re,  nor  whether  it  has  or  has  not  any 
effect;  on  comparative  speed.  I  believe  the  difference  to  be  yet 
more  conspicuous  in  roadsters  than  in  thoroughbreds.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  a  breast-plate,  a  thing  commonly  in  use  in  England  to 
jn-event  the  saddle  from  slipping  back,  is  never  seen  in  America  ; 
and  that,  in  the  former  country,  a  horse  which  would  not  carry 
his  saddle  without  a  crupper,  would  l)e  considered  fatally  defi- 
cient in  tbrm,  while  here  it  is  not  unusual,  nor,  I  believe,  consid- 
ered a  serious  disadvantage. 

Another  point  in  which  the  American  horse  of  all  conditions 
diftei's  extremely,  and  here,  most  advantageously,  from  the  Eu- 
ropean animal,  is  his  greater  snrefootedness  and  freedom  from 
the  dangerous  and  detestable  vice  of  stumbling.  It  is  only  ne- 
cessary, in  order  to  convince  himself  that  this  is  a  real  and  not 
an  imaginary  difference  in  favor  of  our  horses,  to  examine  the 
knees  of  the  hack-horses  let  for  hire,  either  in  the  cities  or  rural 


FEEEDOM    FROM    STCr:NrBLING.  117 

villages  of  the  United  States,  as  compared  with  those  of  similar 
Englisli  localities.  In  this  country  a  broken  knee  is  one  of  the 
rarest  blemishes,  if  not  the  very  rarest,  one  ever  encounters  in  the 
horse.  Of  horses  let  for  hire  in  England,  nnless  it  be  by  a  few 
crack  livery-keepers  in  London,  in  the  Univ^ersities,  and  in  one  or 
two  other  of  the  most  important  towns  in  hunting  neigliborhoods, 
a  majority  are  decidedly  broken-kneed.  Nor  is  it  at  all  unusual 
to  meet  perilous  stumblers,  even  from  gentlemen's  stables,  and 
in  the  case  of  animals  whose  appearance  would  indicate  any 
tiling  but  liability  to  so  manifest  and  disqualitying  a  fault.  I 
have  had  in  my  life  several  heavy  falls  on  the  road  in  England, 
from  my  horse  coming  down  with  me  on  a  trot,  when,  from  the 
character  of  the  horse,  I  should  have  expected  any  thing  else  ; 
and  it  is  needless  to  add  that  the  roads  in  Great  Britain,  as  a 
general  thing,  are  infinitely  better,  freer  fi-om  ruts,  stones,  or 
other  obstacles,  than  those  of  the  United  States ;  while  in  this 
country  I  have  never  had  a  horse  stumble  with  me  in  harness, 
and  but  twice  under  the  saddle,  one  of  wliich  was  easily  recov- 
ered,  while  the  other,  which  fell  outright,  was  a  notorious  blun- 
derer, and,  I  think  the  only  broken-kneed  horse  I  have  met  in 
America. 

I  ascribe  the  immunity  of  the  horse,  on  this  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, tVom  this  tault,  first,  to  the  fact  that  both  the  pisturc- 
lands  and  the  roads  are  far  roughei-,  more  broken  in  surface, 
and  more  interrupted  by  stumps,  stones  and  other  obstacles, 
hei-e,  than  in  the  longer  cultivated  and  more  finished  countries 
of  Europe  ;  which  teaches  young  hoi-ses  to  bend  their  knees, 
and  throw  their  legs  more  freely  while  playing  with  their  dams 
in  the  field,  and  also  to  lift  and  set  down  their  feet  with  far 
greater  circumspection,  even  on  our  great  thoroughfares,  many 
of  which  are  scarcely  superior  to  a  French  cross-road,  and  few 
of  which  are  equal  to  an  English  one,  especially  in  the  autumn 
or  in  the  spring,  when  the  frost  is  coming  out  of  the  ground. 
Secondly,  I  think  it  may  be  attributed  to  the  higher  blood  and 
breed  of  the  gentlemen's  riding  horses  in  England,  which  are 
often  cantering  thoroughbreds,  or  at  worst  four  or  five-part-bred 
hacks,  and  from  their  blood  liable  to  be  daisy-cutters  and  un- 
safe goers  on  the  road ;  and  lastly,  to  the  well-known  circum- 
stance that  most  of  the  hired  horses,  posters,  and  casual  road- 


118  THE    HORSE. 

sters  are  worn  out,  or  broken  down,  or  otherwise  disqualified 
animals  of  higlier  caste,  which,  because  they  have  once  held  a 
better,  are  still  supposed  equal  to  a  secondary  situation,  when 
they  are  in  truth  fit  for  none,  and  are  dangerous  in  any  posi- 
tion. 

To  this  admirable  quality  of  the  American  horse,  which, 
from  what  cause  soever  it  arises,  cannot  be  doubted  or  disputed, 
must  be  added  his  extreme  good  temper  and  docility,  in  which 
he  unquestionably  excels  any  other  horse  in  the  world.  I  can 
give  no  reason  for  this  want  of  vice  ;  but  there  it  is — a  fixed  and 
established  fact.  From  the  first  childhood  of  the  animal,  until 
he  is  fully  put  to  work,  he  requires  little  or  no  breaking,  and 
for  the  most  part  receives  none — ^unless  he  shows  qualities, 
which  promise  such  speed  or  endurance  as  to  render  it  advisable 
to  break,  or  rather  to  train,  him  as  a  trotter.  And  when  this  is 
done,  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  developing  his  powers,  getting  him 
to  exert  himself  to  the  utmost,  and  teaching  him  how  to  move 
to  the  best  advantage ;  and  not  to  render  him  submissive,  easy 
of  management,  or  gentle  to  be  handled. 

Such  a  thing  as  a  professional  horse-breaker  is  unknown ; 
colts  are  rarely,  if  ever,  put  upon  the  breaking  bits,  lounged  or 
subjected  to  any  of  the  processes  of  handling,  without  which 
the  young  horse  of  Europe  is,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  particu- 
larly if  he  have  any  pure  blood  in  his  veins,  a  wild,  headstrong, 
ungovernable,  and  almost  indomitable  savage. 

There  is  scarcely  ever  any  difficulty  in  saddling,  in  har- 
nessing, in  backing,  or  in  inducing  him  to  go.  He  may  be  awk- 
ward at  first,  uncouth,  shy  and  timid,  but  one  may  say  never 
violent,  splenetic,  and  fierce ;  never  making  those  wild  bounds 
and  plunges  by  which  he  strives  resolutely  to  divest  himself 
of  his  trappings,  and  to  get  rid  of  his  rider,  as  one  almost  in- 
variably sees  a  young  animal  do  in  Europe,  while  in  the  break- 
er's hands. 

It  is  true  that  they  are  treated  for  the  most  part  with  supe- 
rior judgment  and  greater  humanity  in  the  United  States,  un- 
less in  very  exceptional  instances ;  that  the  whip  is  little  used, 
and  the  spur  almost  unknown ;  but  the  whole  of  this  remarka- 
ble diflPerence  in  temper,  on  the  part  of  the  American  horse, 
cannot  be  attributed  to  the  diflPerence  of  treatment,  for  it  cer- 


HIGPI    GUOOMING.  119 

tainly  would  not  be  safe,  much  less  wise  or  easy,  to  mount  an 
English  liiglilj-bred  colt  without  having  the  means  of  compel- 
ling obedience  in  case  of  resistance,  and  insuring  the  victory  to 
the  horseman,  in  case  of  what  is  constantly  occurring,  a  long 
and  obstinate  encounter  of  wits  and  trial  of  powers  between  the 
intellectual  man  and  the  intelligent  brute. 

As  he  begins,  morever,  so  he  continues  to  the  end.  One 
rarely,  if  ever,  meets  a  kicker,  a  runaway,  an  inveterate  shyer  or 
balker,  and  hardly  ever  a  furious,  biting,  striking,  screaming 
devil,  whom  he  cannot  approach  but  at  the  risk  of  limb  or  life, 
in  an  American  horse  of  any  class  or  condition. 

Probably,  this  fact  may  be  in  some  respect  attributed  to  the 
less  high  strain  of  blood  in  the  American  roadster ;  and  still 
more  to  the  hardier  and  less  stimulating  mode  of  treatment  to 
which  he  is  subjected.  The  American  trotter  of  the  highest 
grade  being  a  very  out-of-door  plant  indeed,  as  compared  to  an 
English  hunter  or  park  hack,  which  is  invariably  in  the  most 
pampered  and  blooming  condition,  generally  above  his  work, 
and  excited,  by  the  high  and  constant  grooming,  rubbing  and 
currying,  which  is  going  on  in  first-class  English  stables,  to 
great  irritability  both  of  skin  and  temper. 

No  one  who  has  seen  hunters  groomed  in  England,  or  race- 
horses in  this  country,  ^^ich  are,  one  may  say  as  a  rule,  the 
only  horses  subjected  to  this  extreme  dressing,  can  doubt,  when 
he  hears  the  animals  squealing  and  snorting,  and  sees  them  bit- 
ing or  lashing  out  at  every  tiling  they  see,  that  the  animal  is 
rendered  in  the  highest  degree  sensitive,  and  has  his  nervous 
temperament  excited  and  stimulated  very  far  by  this  treatment, 
while  his  spirits,  his  health,  his  courage,  and  his  beauty  are 
promoted  by  it,  in  at  least  an  equal  degree.  Certainly  I  have 
never  seen  horses  in  America,  unless  they  were  either  race- 
horses or  trotters  in  match  condition,  either  groomed,  or  show- 
ing the  grooming  in  the  bloom  and  perfection  of  their  coats, 
which  is  expected  of  the  horsekeej)er  in  every  English  gentle- 
man's stable. 

I  do  not  say  that  it  is  desirable,  or  that  the  American  mode 
should  be  altered  ;  I  only  assert  that  it  is  so.  For  the  English 
hunter,  or  steeplechaser,  whose  work  is  closely  analogous  to 
that  of  an  American  four-mile-heater,  nearly  the  same  condi- 


120  THE    HORSE. 

tion,  and  the  blooming  coat  are  doubtless  necessary.  Produced 
as  tliey  must  be  by  hot  stabling,  thick  clothing,  and  extremely 
high  and  pampered  feeding,  I  do  not  believe  that  such  treat- 
ment would  be  beneficial  to  American  roadsters,  but  the  reverse. 
And,  apart  from  the  parade  and  show — which,  as  they  are  a 
principal  part  of  the  object  for  which  the  European  gentleman 
keeps  his  carriage  horses  and  park  hacks,  cannot  be  sacrificed — 
1  do  not  believe  that  it  is  advantageous  to  the  hardihood, 
healtli,  or  endurance  of  weather,  of  such  animals  in  Eng- 
land. 

I  remember,  it  struck  me  with  great  wonder,  some  five  and 
twenty  years  ago,  when  every  young  gentleman,  in  Kew  York, 
kept  his  fast  trotter,  or  fast  team,  to  see  those  animals  driven  at 
a  rate  I  had  never  before  heard  of,  some  eight  or  ten  miles,  till 
they  were  in  a  lather  of  sweat,  and  then  left  to  stand  in  the 
open  air  with  tlie  thermometer  not  mnch  above  zero,  for  two  or 
three  hours,  with  only  a  single  blanket  over  them,  at  Cato's 
door,  while  their  owners  were  talking  "horse,"  within,  round  a 
blazing  fire. 

I  at  once  recognized  that  no  English  horse,  stabled  and 
groomed  as  English  horses  are  groomed  and  stabled,  could 
have  been  subjected  to  such  treatment,  without  incurring  al- 
most the  certainty  of  an  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  and  the 
greatest  imaginable  risk  of  being  rendered  worthless  for  ever 
after. 

It  is  true,  that  in  England  such  trials  are  not  required  of 
horses,  ownng  to  the  far  greater  equability  of  the  climate,  in 
which  the  hottest  summer  day  rarely  exceeds  75  to  80  degrees, 
or  the  coldest  winter  day  falls  lower  than  25  to  20  degrees 
above  zero  ;  so  that  there  is,  perhaps,  little  more  difiference  be- 
tween the  heat  of  a  warm  English  stable  and  the  outer  air, 
than  tliere  is  between  that  of  a  cold  American  one  and  the 
wdnter  atmosphere  without. 

Still  I  believe  that  the  heating  treatment,  in  some  degree, 
unnerves  horses,  deprives  them  of  the  power  of  enduring  long 
protracted  exertion,  privation,  hardship,  and  the  inclemency 
of  weather.  And  I  farther  believe  that  tlie  pampering,  high 
feeding,  excessive  grooming,  and  general  maintenance  of  horses 
iu  an  unnatural  and  excited  state  of  health  and  spirits,  has  an 


DOCILITY    OF   THE    AMERICAN    RACERS.  121 

injurious  effect  on  the  general  temper  of  the  animal ;  though 
not,  perhaps,  so  greatly  as  to  account  for  all  the  difference  al- 
luded to  above. 

If  it  have  any  injurioiis  effect  in  provoking  the  animal  to 
resistance,  rebellion,  or  caprice,  the  rest  soon  follows ;  for  the 
rebellion  or  caprice  of  the  animal  constantly  calls  forth  the  vio- 
lence, the  injustice,  and  the  cruelty  of  the  groom.  By  these 
means  a  casual  trick  is  confirmed  into  a  depraved  habit,  and  a 
playful,  mischievous  creature,  transformed  into  a  vicious,  savage 
devil.  Still,  while  I  attribute  some  of  the  extra  amount  of  mis- 
chief, wantonness  and  vice  ^  in  European  horses — French  and 
Spanish  horses  I  think  even  more  vicious  than  the  English — to 
the  effects  of  the  system,  I  also  think  that,  by  some  stccident  of 
blood,  or  climate,  American  horses  are  the  more  docile  and 
gentler  by  nature.  I  have  observed  the  fact  in  race-horses,  as 
highly  groomed,  and  as  much  pampered  as  any ;  I  have  also 
observed  it  among  stallions,  on  exhibition,  in  the  highest  bloom, 
at  fairs,  animals  which  no  man  in  his  senses  in  Europe  would 
think  of  approaching,  under  the  like  circumstances. 

And  I  must  say,  in  conclusion,  that  I  consider  the  general 
horse  of  America  superior,  not  in  blood  or  in  beauty,  but  decid- 
edly in  hardihood  to  do  and  to  endure,  in  powers  of  travel,  in 
speed,  in  docility  and  in  good  temper,  to  any  other  race  of 
general  horses  in  the  known  world. 


HISTOEY 

OF     THE     AMERICAN     BLOOD-HORSE. 

Unlike  the  liiiman  race  of  tlie  United  States,  unlike  the  ordi- 
naiy  working  horse,  unlike  the  cattle  and  most  of  the  domestic 
animals  of  JSTorth  America,  which  cannot  be  traced  or  said  to 
belong  to  any  one  distinct  breed  or  family,  having  originated 
from  the  mixture,  combination,  and  amalgamation  of  many- 
bloods  and  stocks,  derived  from  many  different  countries,  the 
bloodhorse  of  America  stands  alone,  unquestionably  of  pure 
English  thoroughblood. 

What  that  English  thoroughblood  is,  has  been  already  dis- 
cussed above  ;  and  it  is  only  necessary  here  to  say,  that,  although 
it  is  not  possible,  in  every  instance,  to  trace  the  great  j)rogeni- 
tors  of  the  English  and  American  Turf,  directly  on  both  sides 
to  Desert  blood,  and  although  it  can  scarce  be  doubted  that,  in 
the  very  commencement  of  Turf-breeding,  there  mnst  have 
been  some  mJxture  of  the  best  old  English  blood,  probably  in 
great  part  Spanish  by  descent,  with  the  true  Arab  or  Barb 
race,  the  impure  admixture  is  so  exceedingly  remote,  not 
within  fourteen  or  fifteen  generations — since  which  the  smallest 
taint  has  been  jealously  excluded — that  the  present  race-horse 
of  England  or  North  America  cannot  possess  above  one 
sixteen-thousandth  part  of  any  other  blood  than  that  of  the 
Desert. 

JSTor  is  it  to  be  doubted,  in  the  smallest  degree,  that  the 
modern  thoroughbred  is  as  far  superior  to  the  present  horse  of 
the  East,  in  his  qualities  and  powers,  as  he  is  in  size,  bone, 


"  FAIK   NELL."  123 

strength,  and  ability  to  cany  weight.     It  is  to  this  very  supe- 
riority of  our  thoroughbred,  which  is  proved  *  wherever  it  has 

*  It  ■will  be  remembered,  by  many  of  my  readers,  that  some  years  since  the 
Viceroy  of  Egypt  challenged  the  English  Jockey  Club  to  run  a  certain  number  of 
English  horses  against  the  pick  of  his  stables.  The  bet  was  declined  ;  first,  because 
the  EngUsh  Jockey  Club,  in  their  corporate  capacity,  do  not  own  racers  ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, because  to  run  a  distance  race  over  broken  desert  ground  was  considered  a 
greater  risk  of  destroying  valuable  animals  than  the  circumstances  would  justify. 
The  match  has  since  been  made,  on  private  account,  with  the  usual  result,  as  the 
following  extract  shows  : — 

"  An  interesting  race  was  run  recently  at  Cairo  between  an  English  mare  and  an 
Arab  horse  belonging  to  Aaleen  Pacha,  when  the  former  beat  the  latter.  The  length 
of  the  race  was  eight  miles,  the  time  occupied  by  the  mare  18^  minutes,  over  a 
rough,  gravelly,  sandy  road.  The  same  race  has  been  offered  for  the  last  two  years 
against  all  England,  for  10,000  sovereigns,  with  the  same  horse,  and  not  accepted. 
The  Egyptian  princes  are  now  convinced  that  their  Arabs  can  be  beaten  by  English 
horses.  The  late  Viceroy  Abbas  Pacha  had  offered  to  stake  any  amount  up  to 
150,000f.  on  his  own  horse  against  any  others  that  might  be  brought  to  run." 

A  farther  account  of  this  mare  has  been  more  recently  published,  which  is  sub- 
joined, showing  it  to  be  very  doubtful  whether  the  mare,  which  so  easily  beat  the 
Arab,  was  fully  bred. 

"  Fair  Nell,"  the  Irish  mare  that  beat  the  Pacha's  Arab. — A  short  time  since 
some  sensation  was  created  by  a  paragraph  which  went  the  rounds  of  the  press, 
stating  that  an  English  mare,  in  a  race  of  eight  miles,  had  beaten  the  best  Arab  in 
Egypt  by  a  full  mile,  doing  the  distance  in  18^  minutes,  and  pulUng  up  fresh.  On 
inquiry,  it  was  found  that  the  Arab  was  the  property  of  Aaleen  Pacha,  a  son  of 
Abbas  Pacha,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  about  three  years  ago,  challenged  the 
Jockey  Club  to  run  any  number  of  Enghsh  horses  against  his  Arabs,  for  any  sum 
not  less  than  ten  thousand  pounds  sterhng.  The  Jockey  Club,  which  makes  rules 
for  racing,  and  by  its  stewards  fixes  the  weights  of  certain  matches  and  handicaps, 
does  not  own  or  run  horses  in  its  Club  capacity,  and  dechned  to  take  up  the  chal- 
lenge. It  was  said  that  Abbas  Pacha  would  not  accept  a  challenge  from  any  private 
individual ;  and  the  reputation  of  his  stud — which  had  been  collected  at  an  unlimited 
expense,  with  the  power  of  despotism — was  so  high,  that  the  owners  of  good  horses 
were  afraid  of  risking  their  reputation  in  a  foreign  country  over  a  long  course  of 
sand  and  gravel. 

However,  the  other  day  a  party  of  Cairo  merchants  made  up  the  match  above 
referred  to  for  about  £400,  and  won  it  so  easily  that  they  now  find  it  impossible  to 
make  another.  "We  learn  through  private  sources  that  El  Hami  Pacha,  the  youngest 
son  of  Abbas  Pacha,  who  inherited  his  stud,  not  less  than  300  in  number,  still  fan- 
cies that  he  could  find  a  horse  that  in  a  twenty-mile  race  would  beat  the  European 
mare ;  but,  although  quite  young,  he  is  so  indolent  that  he  seldom  leaves  his 
harem ;  and  it  is  doubtful  if  he  will  take  the  trouble  to  make  the  necessary  pre- 
liminaries for  a  race.  About  the  result  there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt.  No  Arab 
in  the  world  can  go  through  a  day's  racing  with  our  best  thoroughbred  steeple- 
chasers and  hunters — not  even  the  stock  of  Disraeli's  Star  of  the  Desert,  jockeyed 
by  Sidonia. 


124  THE   HORSE. 

encountered  the  oriental  horse,  that  it 

late  cross  of  Arab  blood  has,  in  the  smallest  degree,  improved 

the  European  or  American  racer. 

It  appears  to  be  now  an  admitted  fact  that,  to  improve  any 
blood,  the  sire  must  be  the  superior  animal ;  and,  inasmuch  as 
by  care,  cultivation,  superior  food,  and  better  management,  our 
descendant  of  the  Desert  blood  has  been  matured  into  a  crea- 
ture superior  to  his  progenitors,  mares  of  the  improved  race  can 
gain  nothing  from  being  referred  to  the  original  stock  ;  although 
it  remains  to  be  seen,  whether  by  the  importation  of  oriental 
mares,  and  breeding  them  judiciously  to  modern  thoroughbred 
sires,  something  might  not  be  effected. 

The  first  systematic  attempts  at  improving  the  blood  of  the 
English  horse  began,  as  we  have  seen,  in  tlie  reign  of  King 

Fair  Nell  is  supposed  to  be  thoroughbred  ;  her  sire,  according  to  the  best  infor- 
mation, was  the  celebrated  Irish  horse  Freney,  to  whom  she  bears  a  strong  resem- 
blance, both  in  appearance  and  temper,  but  she  is  not  in  the  stud-book.  She  is  a 
beautiful  light  bay,  with  black  legs,  standing  fifteen  hands  one  inch  and  a  half  high, 
with  a  game,  determined  head,  very  lengthy,  with  beautiful  shoulders,  arms,  and 
fore  legs,  back  and  hind  quarters,  with  very  powerful  thighs.  She  is  a  delightful 
mare  to  sit  when  going  ;  her  stride  is  great,  strong,  and  elastic  ;  and,  from  her  form, 
she  gives  the  feeling  of  "  plenty  before  you."  She  is  a  hard  puller,  with  a  good 
mouth,  graceful,  and  easy  even  when  plunging  most  violently.  In  hunting,  she 
rushed  at  her  fences  at  a  terrible  pace,  but  never  made  a  mistake.  As  a  hack  she 
was  most  luxurious,  but  at  times  it  was  real  work  of  danger  to  cross  a  crowded  road 
with  her.  In  the  stable  she  was  perfectly  quiet.  She  was  purchased  in  Ireland  by 
a  well  known  old  Irish  steeple-chase  rider  and  groom,  Andy  Rogers,  for  a  gentleman 
of  Bath,  who  found  her  too  spirited  and  uncomfortable  for  a  hunter,  and  sent  her  to 
be  sold  at  Hetherington's  stables  in  the  Edgeware  road.  Not  finding  a  purchaser, 
she  was  put  up  at  Tattersall's,  where  she  was  set  down  by  the  crowd  as  a  "  raking 
Irish  devil,"  and  found  no  favor. 

After  being  withdrawn,  Mr.  Edmund  Tattersall,  the  junior  partner  of  the  firm, 
was  so  struck  with  her  shape  and  beauty  that,  against  the  advice  of  his  friends,  he 
bought  her  as  a  park  and  cover  hack.  She  often  carried  him  sixteen  miles  within 
the  hour,  including  stoppages,  to  meet  hounds,  he  riding  twelve  stone,  seeming  to 
be  only  cantering  all  the  time ;  and  back  again  in  the  evening,  at  the  same  rate, 
without  showing  the  least  fatigue;  and  was  perfectly  pleasant  so  long  as  ridden 
alone,  and  with  fine  hands.  Although  more  than  once  offered  on  loan  to  racing 
men,  by  her  owner,  who  felt  sure  she  must  win  a  long  race  over  deep  ground,  no  one 
ventured  to  try  her ;  a  mistake,  evidently  ;  for  it  turns  out  that,  on  her  trial  in 
Egypt,  before  the  race,  she  did  five  miles  in  ten  minutes  and  a  half. 

Eventually  Mr.  Hetherington  applied  to  Mr.  Tattersall,  to  purchase  Fair  Nell  back 
for  the  merchants  of  Cairo.  She  was  in  low  condition  when  she  was  shipped,  yet 
ran  and  won  her  race  within  two  months  from  the  time  of  landing. 


FIRST    IMPORTATIONS.  125 

James  I.,  was  continued  in  that  of  Charles  I.,  and  during  the 
Commonwealth;  and  advanced  with  renewed  spirit  on  the 
restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  of  whom  one  is  hajjpy  to  record — 
since  there  is  little  else  to  be  recorded  in  their  favor — that  they 
were  a  horse-loving  and  sport-encouraging  race,  and  that  Eng- 
land, and  through  her  America,  owe  to  them,  in  great  part,  the 
blood  of  their  matchless  steeds. 

"  In  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  the  last  of  that  house  who  sat 
on  the  royal  throne  of  England,  the  English  thoroughbred 
horse  may  be  regarded  as  fully  established ;  the  Darley  Arabian, 
sire  of  Elying  Childers,  Curwen's  Barb,  and  Lord  Carlisle's 
Turk,  sire  of  the  Bald  Galloway,  being  imported  in  her  reign. 
Sixteen  years  after  her  death,  and  three  years  before  the  foun- 
dation of  Georgia,  the  youngest  of  the  royal  colonies,  twenty- 
one  foreign,  and  fifty  native  stallions,  some  of  them  the  most 
celebrated  horses  the  world  has  ever  seen,  such  as  Childers, 
Bartlett's  Childers,  the  Grey  Childers,  the  Bald  Galloway,  Bay 
Bolton,  Coneyskins,  Crab,  Fox,  Hartley's  Blind  Horse,  Jigg, 
Soreheels,  and  Trueblne  were  covering  in  the  United  Kingdoms ; 
and  from  some  of  those  are  descended  almost  all  our  racers  of 
the  present  day.  Six  years  before  this,  the  first  Kacing  Calen- 
dar was  pnblished  in  England,  with  nearly  seven  hundred  sub- 
scribers. 

During  this  period  it  was,  precisely,  that  the  American, 
colonies  were  planted ;  and,  as  might  be  anticipated,  English 
horses  of  pure  blood  were  at  a  very  early  date  introduced ;  and 
in  those  regions,  where  the  settlement  was  principally  effected 
by  men  of  birth,  attached  to  the  Cavalier  party,  race-horses 
were  kept  and  trained,  race-courses  were  established,  and  a  well- 
authenticated  stock  of  thoroughbred  animals,  tracing  to  the 
most  celebrated  English  sires,  many  of  which  were  imported 
in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  in  existence 
considerably  before  the  outbreak  of  the  old  French  war. 

In  the  Eastern  States,  the  settlers  of  which  were  for  the 
most  part  attached  to  the  Puritan  party,  and  therefore  opposed 
to  all  amusements  and  j^astimes  as  frivolous  at  the  least  and 
unprofitable,  and  to  horse-racing  more  especially  as  profane  and 
positively  wicked,  very  few  horses  of  thorougli  blood  were  im- 
ported ;  racing  has  never  taken  any  root  in  them,  nor  I  believe 


126  THE   HOKSE. 

lias  any  stable  of  racers  ever  been  kept  to  the  eastward  of  New- 
York.' 

Yirginia  and  Maryland  as  the  head-quarters  of  tlie  Cavaliers — 
the  former  State  having  for  a  long  time  refused  submission  to 
the  Connnonwealth  and  to  stout  old  Oliver — as  the  seat  of  the 
aristocracy,  fashion,  and  wealth  of  the  Colonies,  prior  to  the 
Kevolution — took  an  early  and  decided  lead  in  this  noble  pur- 
suit ;  and,  while  the  love  of  the  sport  continues  to  distinguish 
their  descendants,  who  are  by  far  the  most  equestrian  in  their 
habits  of  any  other  citizens  of  the  Kepublic,  the  result  of  the 
liberality  of  the  first  settlers  is  yet  visible  in  the  blood  of  their 
noble  steeds. 

It  is  probable  that  Eacing  may  have  commenced  simultane- 
ously, or  nearly  so,  in  the  two  States  above  named.  It  was  an 
attribute  of  the  principal  towns  of  Maryland  some  years  pre- 
vious to  Braddock's  defeat  in  1753,  and  it  is  nearly  certain  that 
Spark,  owned  by  Governor  Ogle,  of  that  colony,  presented  to 
him  by  Lord  Baltimore,  who  received  him  as  a  gift  from  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  father  to  King  George  III.,  came  hither  pre- 
vious to  that  event,  and  was  among  the  first  horses  of  great  dis- 
tinction brought  to  America,  though  it  cannot  be  shown,  what 
was  the  exact  date  of  his  importation.  It  seems  also  that  there 
is  some  dispute  as  to  his  pedigree.  Weatherby's  stud-book  has 
S])ark,  by  Honeycomb  Punch  out  of  Wilkes'  Old  Hautboy 
mare,  and  this  I  presume  is  the  horse  in  question,  as  is  stated 
by  Patrick  Nisbett  Edgar,  in  his  Sportsman's  Herald,  who  gives 
his  pedigree  as  above,  signed  and  sealed  by  Lord  Baltimore. 
Skinner,  in  his  stud-book,  states  him  to  have  been  got  by  Aleppo, 
son  of  the  Darley  Arabian,  dam  by  Bartlett's  Childers,  &c. ; 
but  he  states  no  authority,  and  I  presume  is  in  error  ;  as  I  find 
no  grounds  for  such  a  pedigr(>e.  Edgar  states,  also,  that  Wilkes' 
Old  Hautboy  mare,  dam  by  Brimmer,  was  also  imported  into 
Virginia  by  Col.  Colville,  and  afterward  known  as  Miss  Col- 
ville.  Old  Hautboy  was  son  of  the  D'Arcy  white  Turk,  out  of 
one  of  King  Charles  II.'s  barb  mares.  Honeycomb  sire  of  Punch, 
by  the  Dun  Barb  out  of  a  Babraham  mare.  Governor  Ogle, 
the  owner  of  Spark,  who  as  a  grandson  of  Hautboy  must  date 
back  to  early  in  the  18th  century,  also  imported  Queen  Mab, 
by  Musgrove's  grey  Arabian ;  but  the  date  of  her  importation 


MARYLAND   AND    VIRGINIA.  127 

is  not  known  more  certainly  than  that  of  Spark.  Frederic, 
Prince  of  Wales,  however,  who  gave  him  to  Lord  Baltimore,  died 
himself  in  1751,  by  which  one  may  conjecture  his  importation 
to  have  occurred  previously  to  that  date.  The  circumstances  of 
the  gift  speak  well  for  the  character  of  the  horse,  who  was  pro- 
bably in  a  high  form  as  a  racer,  since  royal  donors  are  not  wont 
to  make  worthless  donations. 

About  the  year  1750,  Colonel  Tasker  imported  into  Mary- 
land the  celebrated  English  mare  Selima,  a  daughter  of  the  Go- 
dolphin  Arabian,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  mares  that  ever 
ran  in  America,  and  progenitrix  through  Kockingham,  Mark 
Antony,  and  many  others,  of  half  the  best  and  most  fashionable 
blood  in  America.  In  December,  1752,  Col,  Tasker  won  a 
'sweepstakes  with  that  mare  at  Gloucester,  Yirginia,  beating 
Col.  Byrd's  renowned  horse  Tryall — by,  imported,  Morton's  Tra- 
veller, out  of  Blazella  by  Blaze,  out  of  Jenny  Cameron  by  Quiet 
Cuddy,  son  of  Fox  out  of  Castaway  mare — Colonel  Taylor's 
Jenny  Cameron,  and  a  mare  of  Colonel  Thornton's,  for  a  sweep- 
stakes of  four  miles,  for  500  pistoles.  After  this  time,  it  appears 
to  have  been  considered  part  of  the  duty  of  a  governor  of  Mary- 
land to  keep  a  racing  stud  ;  as,  succeeding  Governor  Ogle,  the 
importer  of  these  famous  animals,  Governors  Eidgely,  Wright, 
Lloyd,  and  Sprigg,  were  all  determined  turfmen  and  supporters 
of  the  American  racing  interest. 

l^early  about  the  same  time,  there  were  imported  into  Yir- 
ginia, Kouth's  Crab,  by  old  Crab,  dam  by  Counsellor,  daughter 
of  Coneyskins,  supposed  to  be  in  or  about  1745.  Li  1747,  Mon- 
key, by  the  Lonsdale  Bay  Arabian,  dam  by  Curwen's  Bay  Barb, 
daughter  of  the  Byerly  Turk  and  a  Koyal  mare.  He  was  22 
years  old  when  imported,  but  left  good  stock.  In  1748,  Eoger 
of  the  Yale,  afterwards  known  as  Jolly  Eoger,  by  Roundhead, 
out  of  a  partner  mare.  Woodcock,  Croft's  Bay  Barb,  Dickey 
Pierson,  out  of  a  Barb  mare.  Roundhead  was  by  Flying  Chil- 
ders,  out  of  Roxana,  dam  of  Lath  and  Cade,  by  the  Bald  Gallo- 
way, out  of  a  daughter  to  the  Acaster  Turk.  Woodcock  was  by 
Merlin,  out  of  a  daughter  of  Brimmer.  Dickey  Pierson  by  the 
Dodsworth  Barb  out  of  the  Burton  Barb  mare. 

In  about  1764,  was  imported  Fearnought,  got  by  Regulus 
out  of  Silvertail  by  Whitenose,  grand-dam  by  Rattle,  great 


12S  THE   HOKSE. 

grand-diiui  by  the  Darley  Arabian,  great  great  grand-dam  Old 
Child  mare,  by  Sir  Thomas  Gresley's  Arabian,  great  great  great 
grand-dam,  Vixen,  by  Helmsley  Turk,  out  of  Dodsworth's  dam, 
a  natural  Barb.  Kegulus  was  by  the  Godolphin  Barb,  dam 
Grey  Kobinson  by  the  Bald  Galloway,  grand-dam  by  Snake  out 
of  Old  Wilkes'  Plautboy  mare.  Eattle  was  by  Sir  H.  Har- 
pur's  Barb  out  of  a  royal  mare.  AVhitenose  was  by  the  Hall 
Arabian  out  of  dam  to  Jigg.  Thus  Fearnought  is  come  of  the 
very  liighest  and  purest  blood  in  England,  and  has  left  his  mark 
largely  on  the  blood-horse  of  Virginia.  It  is  said  that,  before 
his  time,  there  was  little  beyond  quarter  racing  in  Virginia, 
that  his  progeny  were  of  uncommon  figure,  and  first  introduced 
the  size  and  bottom  of  the  English  race-horse  into  America. 
This  must  be  taken,  however,  cum  grano  salts,  as  it  is  evident* 
from  what  has  been  stated  in  regard  to  Selima,  that  four-mile 
racers  were  the  fashion  in  Maryland  at  least  fifteen  years  before 
that  date,  and  it  is  only  to  be  understood  in  the  case  of  second- 
rate  racers,  that  quarter  running  was  in  vogue  at  this  period. 

These  capital  horses  Avere  shortly  followed  by  Morton's 
Traveller,  who  was  probably  got  by  Partner,  a  grandson  of  the 
Byerly  Turk,  and  grandsire  of  King  Herod,  dam  by  the  Bloody 
Buttocks  Arabian  ;  grand-dam  by  Greyhound,  a  Barb  ;  g.  grand 
dam  by  Makeless  ;  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Brimmer ;  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam 
by  the  White  Turk ;  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Dodsworth,  a  Barb  ; 
g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Layton  Barb  mare. 

Makeless  was  by  the  Oglethorpe  Arab  out  of  Trumpet's  dam. 
She  was  a  pure  Barb  by  Dodsworth  out  of  the  Layton  Barb 
mare.     Brimmer  was  by  the  Yellow  Turk  out  of  a  royal  mare. 

Tiiese  were  jn-obably  the  best  early  horses  that  were  im- 
ported into  America ;  and  to  these,  with  the  mares  Selima, 
Queen  Mab,  Jenny  Cameron,  Kitty  Fisher,  Miss  Colville,  and 
a  few  others  of  about  the  same  period,  may  be  traced  all,  or 
almost  all  the  families  of  running  horses  now  existing  in  the 
United  States,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  and  with  nearly  as 
much  certainty  as  the  English  champions  of  the  olden  day  may 
be  followed  up  to  imported  Arab  and  Barb  on  both  sides. 

It  is  unfortunate,  first,  that  our  Eevolutionary  War  inter- 
rupted the  peaceful  progress  of  the  country  and  the  avocations 
of  our  country  gentlemen,  at  so  early  a  period  in  the  history  of 


WAXT   OF    KKGISTKIES.  129 

the  Ainericau  Tuif;  since  it  lias  materiallj  increased  the  diffi- 
cultj  of  ascertaining  liow  far  records  or  registries  have  been 
l^reserved,  or  were  kept  from  the  first.  When  men  were  fio-ht- 
iug  for  their  hearths,  with  the  halter  litej-allj  about  their  necks, 
and  daily  expecting  their  houses  to  be  burned  over  their  heads, 
they  had  little  time,  one  may  well  imagine,  to  be  attending  to 
the  pedigrees  of  thoroughbred  horses,  or  to  preserving  reo-ular 
entries.  It  is  to  be  presumed,  moreover,  where  many  heads 
of  families  were  absent  from  their  estates  with  the  army,  or 
were  obliged  to  expatriate  or  conceal  themselves  from  the  con- 
sequences of  proscription  and  outlawry,  that  many  irregularities 
must  have  occurred  from  want  of  due  attention  to  the  studs 
themselves,  as  well  as  to  the  records  of  them.  Many  documents 
must  likewise  have  been  destroyed  by  conflagrations,  or  other 
accidents,  and  lost  in  the  hurry  of  removals.  And,  secondly,  it 
is  most  unfortunate  that  no  regular  Turf  Eegister  was  ever  set 
on  foot  in  America  until  so  late  as  1829.  But,  on  the  whole 
it  may  be  regarded  as  remarkable,  rather,  that  so  many  pedi- 
grees can  be  unequivocally  followed  out  than  that  a  few  should 
be  obscure  and  untraceable  farther  than  to  an  imported  mare.  In 
fact,  so  that  the  owners  were  satisfied  that  the  imported  mares 
were  undoubted  thoroughbreds,  out  of  a  well-known  and  accre- 
dited English  Turf  stable,  they  seemed  to  have  received  them 
almost  as  undoubtingly,  as  did  our  still  more  remote  ancestors 
those  of  oriental  blood,  without  much  questioning,  or  going 
beyond  the  record. 

For  curiosity  and  precision,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  a  few 
of  our  genealogies  cannot  be  traced  a  little  farther  and  more 
definitely  ;  but  it  must  be  conceded  as  a  fact,  which  cannot  be 
questioned  or  doubted,  fully  established  botli  by  their  own  per- 
formances and  by  the  unfailing  transmission  of  their  hereditary 
qualities,  that  our  American  horses  are  as  unequivocally 
thoroughbred,  as  are  any  of  those  English  champions,  whose 
blood  no  one  ever  dreams  of  disputing,  which  go  back,  like  that 
of  Eclipse  himself,  through  Bustler  or  Kockwood,  or  ,inany 
others  of  equal  renown,  to  an  nnhnown  dam  or  sire. 

It  will  be  observed,  and  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  how 
very  many  of  the  earliest  Virginia  and  Maryland  importation 
run  through  Partner,  on  the  one  hand,  to  Spanker  and  Span- 
VoL.  I.— 9 


130  Till';  iioiwK. 

ker'(<  dam,  the  White  and  Yellow  D'Arcy  Turks,  the  Selaby 
Turk,  and  either  the  old  Vintner  or  the  Layton  violet  Barb 
mares ;  and,  on  the  other,  to  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  through 
Regulus,  Babraham,  Juniper,  Dormouse  and  others.  I  say  it 
is  remarkable,  because— after  this  blood  had  for  very  many 
years  been  bred  in  this  country,  more  or  less,  in  and  in — the 
celel)i-ated  horse  Sir  Archy,  son  of  imported  Diomed  and  im- 
ported Castianira,  running  back  through  his  sire,  his  grandsire 
Florizel,  and  his  great  grandsire  Sir  Herod  into  precisely  the 
same  strain  of  Partner  blood,  and  through  his  grand-dam  Tabi- 
tha,  into  the  same  Babraham  and  Godolphin  strain,  seems  to 
have  i)rodueed  by  a  reinfusicm  of  the  selfsame  original  elements, 
a  new  stock  of  unequalled  excellence,  of  iron  endurance,  con- 
stitution, speed  and  stoutness,  which  is  hourly  winning  fresh 
laurels  on  our  own  turf,  and  is  shortly,  as  it  is  understood,  to 
compete  in  the  lists  of  fame,  on  the  very  courses  whereon  their 
ancestors  ran  above  a  century  ago,  with  their  far-away  kindred 
of  the  ocean  island. 

From  Virginia  and  Maryland,  the  racing  spirit  extended 
itself  rapidly  into  the  Carol  in  as,  where  it  has  never  to  this  day 
flagged.  The  oldest  race-courses  in  this  country,  which  are  yet 
kpet  up  for  purposes  of  sport,  are  the  Newmarket  course,  near 
Petersbui'gh,  Virginia,  and  the  Washington  course,  near  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina ;  at  Alexandria,  D.  C,  there  was  a  Race- 
course early  in  the  last  centurj',  and  the  courses  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Ilichmond  have  been  in  existence  above  seventy 
years.  Xot  very  long  after  this  date,  and  previous  to  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  there  were  two  race-courses  on  Long  Island,  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  one  called  Newmarket,  near  the  centre 
of  Suifolk  county,  and  the  other  near  Jamaica  in  Queens  county, 
at  both  of  which  trials  of  speed  were  frequently  had,  but  whether 
there  ^^ere  meetings  at  stated  intervals  and  for  regular  prizes  is 
not  known  ;  it  was  not  until  about  the  commencement  of  the 
present  century,  however,  that  what  may  be  called  race-courses 
proper*  were  established  in  New  York  ;  the  first  club  for  the 
promotion  of  the  breed  of  horses  by  means  of  racing,  taking  date 
from  1804,  in  which  year  the  old  Newmarket  course  was  re- 
modelled, and  regular  meetings  with  two  and  three-mile  heats 
were  established. 


EARLY    RACES.  131 

Long  prior  to  this  time,  however,  the  improvement  of  the 
breed  of  horses  had  created  much  interest  in  that  State,  and  as 

early  as  1764  and  1765  two  celebrated  horses  were  imported 

Wildair,  by  Cade,  and  Lath,  by  Shepherd's  Crab— by  Col.  De- 
lancy,  of  King's  Bridge,  who  also  imported  the  Cub  mare,  dam  of 
Mr.  Gibson's  Cub  mare,  killed  on  the  course  at  Lancaster.  Both 
Wildair  and  Lath  greatly  distinguished  themselves  as  sires,  the 
former  was  esteemed  so  valuable,  that  he  was  re-imported  to 
England.  Another  horse,  Sloven,  said  to  be  by  Cub,  is  stated 
by  Skinner  and  by  Edgar,  on  the  faith  of  a  pedigree  signed 
Jacob  Adlie,  to  have  been  imported  also  into  New  York  in 
about  1764  ;  he  is  not,  however,  to  be  found  in  the  British  stud- 
book,  Weatherby's  ;  and  I  am  not  aware  that  any  of  the  greater 
champions  of  the  American  turf  trace  their  descent  to  Sloven. 

Li  ;N'orth  and  South  Carolina  racing  commenced  with  spirit, 
second,  if  second,  only  to  the  date  of  its  commencement  in  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland.  Flimnap,  Sweeper  and  Toby,  all  horses 
held  in  high  estimation  at  the  time,  were  imported  between  the 
years  1760  and  1770  ;  the  former  a  grandson  on  both  sides  of 
the  Godolphin  Arabian,  and  both  the  others  tracing  to  the  same 
great  progenitor,  and  to  other  ancestors  scarcely  of  inferior  note  ; 
the  last  named  was  imported  by  Col.  Alston,  of  racing  celebrity 
in  North  Carolina. 

Into  Pennsylvania,  which  State  lias  never  shone  particularly 
on  the  racing  turf,  were  brought  two  horses,  Gray  Northumber- 
land, also  called  L-ish  Gray,  said  to  have  been  bred  by  Lord 
Mazarine,  and  to  have  been  a  racer  in  high  form,  supposed 
imported  by  Mr.  Crow,  and,  about  the  same  time.  Old  England, 
pedigree  also  unknown,  but  supposed  begot  by  Old  England, 
son  of  the  Godolphin  Arabian. 

To  these  must  be  given  the  credit  of  running  one  of  the  old- 
est great  American  time  races  on  record,  so  long  ago  as  1767, 
against  two  other  horses,  one  of  whom,  Selim,  it  is  not  easy  to 
identify,  on  account  of  there  aiDpearing  to  have  been  three  of 
the  same  name,  covering  nearly  at  the  same  time.  I  presume 
he  was  the  son  of  the  imported  horse  Selim,  by  Othello,  grand- 
dam  the  large  Hartley  mare,  described  at  page  55  of  Edgar's 
stud-book,  as  imported  in  his  mother's  belly  in  1753  ;  this  date 


132  THE    HORSE. 

does  not,  however,  exactly  agree  with  the  ages  of  the  horses  as 
recorded  below. 

In  Volume  I.,  j^age  IT,  of  the  American  Turf  Kegister,  I  find 
the  following  highly  interesting  letter  ; 

Marietta,  June  26,  1836. 
"  Mr.  Editor, 

"  Sir, — According  to  promise,  you  have  an  account  of  the 
race  run  at  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1767,  by  Selim  and  other 
horses.  It  is  copied  from  the  Maryland  Gazette  of  Mr.  Green, 
October  22,  1767,  by  him  taken  from  a  Philadelphia  paper. 

"  '  On  Tuesday  last,  the  following  horses  started  for  the 
gentlemen's  subscription  purse  of  100  guineas. 

"  '  Samuel  Galloway,  Esq.,  bay  horse  Selim  ...  1         1 

"  '  Mr.  Lcary's  bay  horse  Old  England  .  .  .  .2  dist. 

•    "  '  Mr.  Samuel's  bay  horse  Granby  .  .  .  .  8  dr. 

"  '  Mr.  Andrew  Orr's  gray  horse  Northumberland       .  .  .       dist. 

"  '  Tlie  first  heat  was  rnn  in  8  min.  2  sec,  Selim  winning 
from  Old  England  by  a  single  length.  The  second,  after  rnn- 
ning  three  times  round  close  at  the  heels  of  Selim,  Old  England 
flew  the  course.' 

"  The  standard  was  10  stone.  Selim  was  then  eight  years 
old  and  carried  140  lbs.  full  weight.  Old  England  and  North- 
umberland were  both  imported. 

"  It  is  believed  that  this  running  was  never  exceeded,  if 
equalled,  in  this  country.  To  form  a  correct  judgment  of  the 
speed  of  a  horse,  the  weight  carried  must  always  be  recollected. 
If,  as  the  old  and  experienced  sportsmen  say,  seven  pounds  are 
equal  to  a  distance,  which  is  240  yards,  it  follows  that  fourteen 
pounds  will  make  the  difi'erence  of  480  yards,  a  space  which 
would  consume  22  seconds  at  the  rate  of  running  at  Philadel- 
phia. Deduct  this  from  8  minutes  and  2  seconds  and  it  leaves 
7.30,  in  which  this  race  would  have  run  if  the  standard  had 
been  nine  stone,  126  lbs.  I  have  never  seen  an  account  of  a 
race  where  the  four  miles  were  run  in  7.30  minutes  in  the  United 
States. 

"Figure  beat  Selim  in  1768,  at  Upper  Marlborough,  but 
Selim  was  undoubtedly  in  bad  condition,  and  had  been  lately 
cured  of  distemper  in  the  throat.     He  was  certainly  a  capital 


SELIM    AND    SKLIMA.  l33 

racer.  I  saw  him  beat  the  celebrated  Silver  Legs  from  Virginia 
in  the  year  1772  at  Alexandria,  fonr  miles  and  repeat.  He  was 
then  thirteen  years  old  and  Silver  Legs  only  nine. 

"  With  respect  and  esteem, 

"  G.  Duval." 

"Without  entering  here  into  a  consideration  of  the  effects  of 
weight  on  speed,  this  is  certainly  a  remarkable  performance  ; 
bnt  what  is,  perhaps,  more  remarkable,  is  that  there  is  some 
considerable  diflicnlty  in  making  out  what  this  horse  Selira  can 
be,  unless,  perhaps,  it  be  Selim  by  imported  Othello,  dam  by 
imported  Jolly  Eoger,  grand-dam  by  imported  Silver  Eye,  out 
of  an  imported  thoroughbred  mare. 

The  imported  horse  English  Selnn  was  by  another  Othello, 
also  called  Black  and  all  Black;  but  as  he  was  not  foaled 
until  1753-4,  it  is  hardly  probable  that  he  should  have  been 
a  foal-getter  so  early  as  1759,  unless  he  was  never  trained  at  all. 

It  is  not  stated  of  what  color  was  Selim  by  imported  Othello, 
but  the  two  Selims  by  English  Selim  are  both  described  as 
bright  bay  horses.  In  the  English  stud-book,  is  a  Selim  by 
Bajazet  out  of  Miss  Thigh,  1760,  but  I  cannot  find  that  he  was 
ever  imported  to  America,  although  he  is  included  in  the  stud- 
book  attached  to  Mason's  Farrier,  no  authority  given. 

The  Granby  in  question,  I  presume  to  have  been  a  bay 
horse,  15  hands  1  inch  in  height,  foaled  in  1762,  by  the  imported 
Belsize  Arabian,  dam  by  old  Shock,  grand-dam  imported  mare 
by  Cade,  out  of  the  Hartley  mare,  who  covered  in  Philadelphia, 
in  the  year  following  the  race,  1768. 

If  not  this  horse — who  must,  if  it  be  he,  have  run  a  five-year- 
old  against  Selim  aged — it  must  have  been  Wildman's  Granby, 
by  Blank,  Old  Crab,  Cyprus  Arab,  Commoner,  Makeless,  Brim- 
mer, Dickey  Pierson,  Dodsworth  Barb,  Burton  Barb  Mare — 
who  was  foaled  in  1759,  and  would  have  consequently  been  eight 
years  old  in  the  year  of  this  race.  I  presume,  however,  it  is 
the  horse  first  named  who  ran  in  1667,  as  the  English  Granby 
one  would  have  expected  to  run  better,  unless  he  were  sadly 
degenerate  from  his  illustrious  ancestry. 

The  imported  horse  Selim  is  said,  by  Edgar,  to  be  out  of  the 
beautiful  dark  chestnut  mare  imported  from  England,  and  called 
Selim — Selima  ? — who  brought  him  to  America  in  her  belly,  and 


134  THE   HORSE. 

foaled  him  in  1753 ;  which  mare  was  by  the  Godolphin  Ara- 
bian, oi.it  of  the  large  Hartley  mare,  foaled  about  1736.  There  is 
evidently  much  confusion  and  difficulty  in  all  this  matter.  First, 
it  appears  that  but  one  mare  named  Selima  has  been  imported 
to  America.  She,  got  by  the  Godolphin  Arab,  was  imported 
into  Maryland  by  Col.  Tasker  about  1750,  and,  as  I  have  al- 
ready recorded,  was  a  celebrated  winner  in  1752.  Therefore 
she  could  not  have  been  imported  in  1752,  with  Selim  in  her 
belly  ;  nor  have  foaled  him  in  1753. 

Again,  Col.  Tasker's  Selima  is  not  described,  usually,  as 
out  of  the  large  Hartley  mare,  who  was  so  distinguished  a  pro- 
genitrix that  such  a  pedigree  would  never  have  been  overlooked 
if  it  could  have  been  made  good ;  nor,  lastly,  does  it  appear 
from  the  English  stud-book,  which  contains  no  filly  Selima  of 
this  date,  that  the  large  Hartley  mare  ever  bore  a  chestnnt  filly 
to  the  Godolphin  Arabian  ;  certainly  not  in  1736,  when  she 
brought  Hartley's  roan  stallion  to  Hip  ;  nor  any  chestnut  filly 
at  all  in  any  year  ;  nor  any  filly  to  the  Godolphin,  except  a  bay 
one  in  1646.  Furthermore,  in  the  stock  of  the  Godolj)hin,  re- 
corded at  length  in  White's  History  of  the  British  Turf,  there  is 
no  chestnut  filly  recorded  by  him  out  of  any  mare,  nor  any  filly 
out  of  either  of  the  Hartley  mares,  except  that  named  above, 
and  Merlin's  dam,  out  of  the  little  Hartley,  in  1739. 

I  conclude,  therefore,  that  there  is  some  bad  blunder  in  this 
pedigree  somewhere — the  rather,  that  after  stating  in  the  first 
line  that  he  was  a  dark  bay,  foaled  in  1753,  imported  in  his 
mother's  bell}^,  it  states  below  that  he  was  imported  in  1752, 
the  V6jy  year  in  which  Selima  beat  Tryall,  and  Jenny  Cameron, 
and  that  he  was  a  capital  racer,  and  died  at  twenty-seven  years 
of  age. 

It  seems  to  me,  taking  every  thing  into  consideration,  that 
the  odds  are  that  all  the  four  horses  in  this  remarkable  race 
were  imported ;  though  if  it  be  so,  it  is  certainly  not  a  little 
remarkable  that  Mr.  Duvall,  in  his  letter  quoted  above,  should 
dwell  on  the  fact  that  the  beaten  horses  were  imported,  and 
make  no  comment  on  the  winner,  and  the  third  best  runner. 

By  the  account  of  the  race  given  above,  one  is  led  to  sup- 
pose that  in  this  year,  1767,  there  were  regular  meetings  at 
Philadelphia ;  as  the  term,  "  the  Gentlemen's  Stakes,"  of  one 


ANTE-REVOLUTION AKY  CKACKS.  135 

hundred  Guineas,  with  a  standard  of  weights,  undouhtedly  savors 
of  established  proceedings  and  a  well  supported  race  course  ; 
of  latter  years  there  has  been  no  course  for  running  horses  in 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  though  the  Hunting  Park  Course 
has  been  long  famous  for  its  trotting ;  and  while  there  have 
never,  I  believe,  been  any  distinguished  racing  stables  in  that 
State,  its  inhabitants  have  always  been  ardent  supporters  of 
trotting,  and  purchasers,  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  centur}^,  of 
most  of  the  cracks  which  have  established  their  characters  on 
other  courses. 

To  return  to  the  Southern  States,  therefore,  in  which,  as  I 
have  observed,  racing  first  took  a  firm  root  among  the  agricul- 
tural gentry,  who,  in  whatever  climate  or  country,  are  always 
more  addicted  to  manly  and  exhilarating  exercises,  to  field 
sports,  and  to  the  encouragement  of  objects  not  merely  utili- 
tarian, than  the  dwellers  of  cities,  who  are  apt  to  regard  money 
as  the  only  true  and  legitimate  pursuit ;  we  find  that,  in  the 
States  named  above — of  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  South  Caro- 
lina— many  racing  stables  were  established,  either  previous  or 
immediately  subsequent  to  the  Revolution,  not  a  few  of  which 
are  kept  up  by  the  descendants  of  the  original  founders  to  the 
present  day,  with  equal  spirit  and  success. 

In  Virginia,  Col.  Jolm  Tayloe,  Messrs.  Hoomes,  Selden,  and 
Johnson ;  in  Maryland,  Governors  Ogle,  Eidgely,  Wright, 
Lloyd,  and  Sprigg,  who,  as  it  has  been  remarked,  seemed  by 
their  practice  to  acknowledge  that  the  keeping  up  of  a  racing 
stud  was  a  portion  of  their  gubernatorial  duty  ;  and  in  South 
Carolina,  Messrs.  Hampton,  Washington,  McPherson,  Alston, 
and  Singleton,  were  as  early,  and  have  continued  to  be  as  con- 
sistent and  undeviating  patrons  of  the  American  turf,  as  have 
the  Queensburys,  Eutlands,  Wyndhams,Bentincks,  Fitzwilliams, 
and  other  equally  renowned  turf  names,  been  supporters  of  this 
noble  sport  on  the  old  English  greensward. 

From  so  early  a  date  as  that  of  the  ante-revolutiunary  cracks 
and  champions,  such  as  Celer,  Traveller,  Yorick,  Tryall,  Ariel, 
Partnei-,  Marc  Antony,  Eegulus,  Flag  of  Truce,  Goode's  Brim- 
mer, Butler's  Virginia  Nell,  Bel  Air,  Calypso,  Gray  Diomed, 
Cincinnatus,  Virago,  Shark,  Black  Maria,  by  Shark,  Leviathan, 
Gallatin,  Fairy,  Cup-bearer,  Collector,  Amanda,  Ball's  Florizel, 


13G  THE   HOliSli. 

Post  Boj,  Oscar,  Hickory,  Maid  of  the  Oaks,  Bond's  First  Con- 
sul, Sir  Archy,  Potomac,  Pacolet,  Duroc,  Hampton,  Tuckalioe, 
and  others,  the  names  of  which  alone  would  fill  a  volume,  we 
can  easily  bring  down  in  these  States — and  the  others  colonized 
from  them,  both  with  men  and  horses,  sucli  as  Kentucky,  Ten- 
nessee, and  more  recently  Alabama — one  uninterrupted  and 
stainless  succession  of  noble  racers,  to  the  day  when  the  de- 
scendants of  Sir  Archy,  that  veritable  Godolphin  Arabian  of 
the  tnrf  of  America,  began  to  show  upon  the  course  ;  and  when 
the  renown  of  American  Eclipse  began  to  call  the  attention  of 
the  whole  world,  and  of  the  mother  country,  most  of  all,  whence 
was  derived  that  transcendent  stock,  which  in  all  other  coun- 
tries has  degenerated,  but  in  this  has  continued  to  rival  the 
honors  of  its  remotest  ancestry  by  the  performance  of  American 
race-horses. 

The  English  sires  most  renowned  in  post-revolutionary  days, 
until  we  come  down  to  the  present  day  of  the  Leviathans,  Sar- 
pedons,  Trustees,  Priams,  and  Glencoes,  have  been — 

Ist.  Medley — Imported  into  Virginia  in  1783,  by  Gimcrack, 
dam  Arminda  by  Snap,  out  of  Miss  Cleveland  by  Eegulus  ; 
g.  gr.  dam  Midge,  by  a  son  of  Bay  Bolton  ;  g.  g.  gr.  dam,  by 
Bartlett's  Childers ;  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam,  by  Honey  wood's  Arabian  ; 
g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam,  the  dam  of  the  two  True  Blues.  Gimcrack 
was  by  Cripple,  out  of  Miss  Elliott,  by  Grisewood's  Partner, 
gr.  dam  Celia  by  Partner,  g.  gr.  dam  by  Bloody  Buttocks,  g.  g. 
gr.  dam  by  Greyhound,  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  Brocklesby  Betty. 

Cripple  was  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  out  of  Blossom  by 
Crab,  gr.  dam  by  Childers,  out  of  Miss  Belvoir,  by  Grantham. 

Medley  was  one  of  the  best  sires  ever  imported  into  Amer- 
ica. He  got  Atalanta,  Bel  Air,  Boxer,  Calypso,  Gray  Diomed, 
Gray  Medley,  Lamplighter,  the  Opossum  Filly,  Pandora,  Quick- 
silver, Virginia,  and  others — racers  in  a  high  form,  and  them- 
selves the  getters  of  racers. 

2nd,  Shark — Foaled  in  1771,  and  imported  into  Virginia, 
l)y  Marske,  out  of  the  Snap  mare,  gr.  dam  Wag's  dam,  by  Marl- 
borougli,  out  of  a  natural  Barb  mare. 

Marske,  sire  of  Eclipse,  was  by  Squirt,  dam  by  Foxcub,  gr. 
dam  by  Coneyskins,  g.  gr.  dam  by  Hutton's  Gray  Barb. 

Squirt  was  by  Bartlett's  Childers,  dam  by  Snake,  gr.  dam 


DIOMED    AND    HIS    GET.  137 

Hautboy.  Marlborough  was  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  dam 
large  Hartley  mare. 

Shark's  most  distinguished  progeny  are  ;  Americus,  Annette, 
Black  ]\Iaria,  dam  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  Opossum,  Shark,  Yirago, 
and  many  others. 

3d.  DioMED — Foaled  in  1777.  Imported  into  Virginia  1798. 
He  was  by  Florizel,  dam  by  Spectator,  gr.  dam  by  Blank,  g.  gr. 
dam  by  Childers,  g,  g.  gr.  dam  Miss  Belvoir,  by  Grantham. 

Florizel  was  by  Herod,  dam  by  Cygnet,  gr.  dam  Cartouch, 
g.  gr.  dam  Ebony,  by  Childers,  g.  g.  gr.  dam  old  Ebony  Basto 
mare. 

Herod  was  by  Tartar,  out  of  Cypron,  by  Blaze,  out  of  Se- 
lima,  &c.,  (fee. — See  table  of  Genealogy,  No.  2. 

Diomed  is  probably  the  greatest  sire  of  the  greatest  winner- 
getters  ever  brought  into  this  country.  Had  he  got  none  but 
Sir  Archy,  out  of  imported  Castianira — who  brought  him  to 
America  in  her  belly — that  renown  alone  would  have  been 
more  than  enough  ;  for  scarce  a  recent  horse  in  England,  unless 
it  be  PotSo's,  has  so  distinguished  himself  as  a  progenitor. 

He  begot ;  Bolivar,  Diana,  Dinwiddie,  Duroc,  Florizel,  Gal- 
latin, Gracchus,  Hamlintoniau,  Hampton,  Hornet,  King  Herod, 
Lady  Chesterfield,  Madison,  Marske,  Nettle-top,  Peace-maker, 
Potomac,  Primrose,  Sir  Archy,  Top-gallant,  Truxton,  Yirginius, 
"Wonder,  and  many  others.  Most  of  the  horses  named  above 
were  the  greatest  runners  of  their  day,  and  the  getters  of  the 
greatest  racers  and  sires  to  the  present  time.  Boston,  probably 
the  very  best  horse  that  ever  ran  on  American  soil,  was  by 
Timoleon,  grandson  of  Sir  Archy,  the  best  son  of  Diomed  ; 
while  Fashion,  the  very,  best  mare  that  ever  ran  on  this  side 
the  water,  by  her  dam.  Bonnets  of  Blue,  daughter  of  Reality, 
was  great-granddaughter  of  that  same  noble  stallion  ;  and  by 
her  grandsire  Sir  Charles,  sire  of  Bonnets  and  son  of  Sir  Archy, 
was  also  his  great-granddaughter,  a  second  time,  in  the  mater- 
nal line. 

4th,  Gabbeiel — Foaled  1790,  imported  into  Virginia,  was 
got  by  Dorimant,  dam  Snap  mare,  gr.  dam  by  Shepherd's  Crab, 
g.  gr.  dam  Miss  Meredith  by  Cade,  g.  g.  gr.  dam  Little  Hartley 
mare. 

Dorimant  was  by  Otho,  dam  Babraham  mare,  gr.  dam  Chiddy, 


138  THK    HORSK. 

by  Hampton  Court  Arabian,  out  of  tlie  Duke  of  Somerset's  Bald 
Charlotte. 

Otho  was  by  Moses,  clam  Miss  Yernon  by  Cade,  gr.  dam  by 
Partner,  g.  gr.  dam  Bay  Bloody  Buttocks,  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by 
Greyhound,  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by  Makeless,  g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by 
Brimmer,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by  Place's  White  Turk,  g.  g.  g.  g. 
g.  g.  gr.  dam  by  Dodsworth,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gi'-  dam  Layton's 
violet  Barb  mare. 

Moses  was  by  the  Cliedworth  Foxhnnter,  dam  by  the  Port- 
land Arabian,  gr.  dam,  the  dam  of  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater's 
Star,  she  by  Eichard's  Arabian. 

Gabriel  was  brought  into  Virginia,  and  became,  like  the 
preceding  horses,  very  famous  for  the  splendor  of  his  get  and 
their  great  performances. 

He  got  Oscar,  Post  Boy,  and  others.  The  former  of  whom, 
dam  by  imp.  Medley,  bred  by  General  Tayloe,  is  his  most  cele- 
brated son.  He  was  a  good  runner,  and  his  blood  tells  in  many 
of  our  best  modern  stallions  and  mares,  especially  in  the  South- 
ern States. 

5th.  Bedford — Foaled  in  1792,  imported  into  Virginia.  He 
was  got  by  Dungannon,  dam  Fairy,  by  Highflyer,  gr.  dam  Fairy 
Queen  by  Young  Cade,  g.  gr.  dam  Eouth's  Black  Eyes  by  Crab, 
g.  g.  gr.  dam  the  Warlock  Galloway,  by  the  Bald  Galloway, 
g.  g.  g.  gr.  dim  by  the  Byerly  Turk. 

Dungannon  was  by  Eclipse  out  of  Asj^asia,  by  Herod,  gr. 
dam  Doris  by  Blank,  g.  gr.  dam  Helen  by  Spectator,  g.  g.  gr. 
dam  Daphne  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by 
Fox,  g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by  Childers,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by 
Makeless,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam.  Sister  to  Honeycomb  Punch, 
by  the  Taffolet  Barb. 

The  year  of  Bedford's  importation  is  not  exactly  known. 
He  was  a  great  stallion,  and  there  is  hardly  a  family  of  liorses 
in  the  Southern  States  which  do  not  in  some  degree,  more  or 
less,  partake  of  his  blood.  He  was  a  singularly  formed  horse — 
a  rich  bay — with  a  peculiar  elevation  on  his  rump,  amounting 
in  appearance  to  an  unsiglitliness,  if  not  to  an  absolute  deform- 
ity. This  mark,  known  as  the  Bedford  Hump,  he  has  transmit- 
ted to  his  posterity,  and,  whatever  may  have  been  the  original 
opinion  as  to  its  beauty,  it  has  been  worn  by  so  many  celebrated 


BEDFORD    AND    HIS    GET.  339 

winners,  that  it  has  come  of  late  to  be  regarded  as  a  fore- 
shadowing of  excellence,  rather  than  a  deforinitj.  It  has  been 
worn  bj-  Eclipse,  Black  Maria,  her  brother,  Shark,  Boston,  Ar- 
gyle,  and  many  other  horses  of  great  note. 

Bedford  got ;  vEolus,  Cup-Bearer,  Fairy,  Lady  Bedford,  Lot- 
tery, Nancy  Air,  Shylock,  and  others  not  inferior  in  repute. 

On  the  first  settlement  of  Tennessee,  previous  to  its  admission 
as  a  State  into  the  Union,  the  early  settlers  began  taking  with 
them  excellent  stock  from  Yirginia  and  Maryland,  and  the  blood 
of  Janus,  Jolly  Eoger,  Morton's  Traveller,  Pacolet,  and  other 
worthies  of  the  olden  times,  still  percolates  in  rich  luxuriance 
through  the  veins  of  their  noble  steeds.  It  has  been  always  a 
gallant  and  a  sporting  State  ;  and  I  feel  proud  and  happy — the 
rather  that  the  history  of  the  blood  stock  of  Tennessee  and  of 
the  neighboring  State  of  Kentucky  is  nearly  identical — to  be 
allowed  the  opportunity  of  presenting  to  my  readers  a  most 
valuable  memoir  of  the  blood  of  its  best  equine  families,  con- 
siderately and  kindly  compiled  for  me  from  his  own  memoranda 
of  old  times,  and  from  personal  recollection  of  events,  even 
before  General  Jackson  and  his  contemporaries  were  on  the 
turf,  by  a  veteran  turfman  and  a  hereditary  breeder,  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Williams — to  whom  I  take  this  occasion  of  tendering  my 
most  grateful  and  respectful  thanks. 


[^)  THE    UOR8K. 


HISTORY 

OF    THE    BLOOD-UORSE    IN    TENNESSEE. 

Poplar  Grove,  near  Nashville,  Tenn.  ) 
March  20th,  1856.      ) 

Sir  ; — I  had  written  to  General  Harding,  in  answer  to  his, 
enclosing  your  circular ;  and  in  answer  to  yours  to  me,  refer  to 
my  old  memoranda,  and  make  some  additions. 

The  first  settlers  brought  here  soine  of  their  best  stock  from 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  ;  and  Maclin  had,  as  I  am  informed, 
some  Mexican  mares,  of  the  Spanish  or  Barb  breed. 

The  early  stallions,  here,  of  the  Janus  family,  were — Jupitei*, 
said  to  be  a  son, — Cross's  ;  Comet,  Lewis's,  son  of  Harry  Hill's 
Janus,  and  said  to  have  a  Marc  Antony  and  Jolly  Roger  cross ; 
Sterne,  Blakemore's  ;  and  Bowie's  horse,  who  took  his  owner's 
name,  pronounced  Biu-ey.  His  colts  are  said  to  have  been  un- 
equalled as  quarter-hoi-ses.  Bompard,  by  Obscurity,  imported, 
dam  by  Baylor's  Fearnought ;  Phoenix,  by  Yenetian,  imp.  dam 
Zenobia  by  Don  Carlos,  from  Maryland.  Of  the  Fearnought 
family — Eclipse,  by  Virginia  Eclipse,  presumed  Harris's — B. 
Bosley  ;  AVildair,  son  of  Symme's  Wildair — "Weakley's,  out  of 
a  Fearnought ;  and  Bucephalus  of  a  later  j)eriod — Col.  E.  Ward. 
Of  the  Medley  family — Fitz  Medley,  who  covered  for  a  season 
or  two,  and  died  in  1803-4  at  I.  Hooper's.  Thus  far  from  such 
information  as  I  credited.  About  1800,  Gray  Medley  was  in 
Sumner,  Dr.  Barry's — bred  by  Gov.  Williams,  North  Carolina — 
reputed  high-bred,  and  was  very  game  in  appearance.  He  lived 
to  old  age,  and  did  good  service  ;  Cook's  Bel  Air,  by  Tayloe's 


TKNNKSSEEAK    BLOOD-HORSKS.  14,1 

Bel  Air,  dam  by  Hickman's  Independence  ;  and  Halcot's  Bay. 
Of  the  Celer  family — McKinney's  Roan,  as  I  am  informed,  at 
R.  C.  Foster's,  about  1805  ;  and  Celer,  J.  Thompson's,  out  of  a 
Bel  Air  and  Wildair,  1806.  Coeur-de-Lion  and  Royalist,  of  the 
most  approved  English  breeds,  were  here,  and  did  good  service  ; 
the  first  died,  ours,  autumn  1809 — the  last,  spring  1814,  Hal. 
Cook's.  He  was  imported  to  Kew  York,  sold  to  Kentucky, 
brought  here  by  Weakley  &  Co.,  probably  sent  South  a  season 
or  two,  and  brought  back  by  Cook.  Truxton,  one  of  imp. 
Diomed's  best,  was  raised  here  by  Gen.  Jackson,  then  covered 
many  seasons,  and  sent  South,  1808.  Wonder — Wilkes' — an- 
other of  Diomed's  best,  here,  alternately  in  Sumner  and  Wil- 
liamson. He  got  Oscar,  a  capital  racer  and  very  good  stallion, 
and  died  on  the  road,  of  colic,  February  1815.  Oscar  was  bred 
by  Parson  H.  Saunders,  out  of  Rosy  Clark,  by  Saltram  ;  brought 
on  the  turf  by  Dr.  Lappington,  beat  all  competitors  wit.li  ease, 
put  to  covering  several  seasons,  sold  to  Oen.  Desha,  and  died, 
Ms,  I^ovember  1825.  Dungannon  in  Sumner,  and  Yolunteer 
in  Rutherford,  said  to  be  imported  when  colts.  I  can't  fix  the 
date.  The  first  got  some  good  stock.  Brian  O'Linn,  1811-12, 
at  J.  Shute's.  He  was  very  pretty — got  Stump  the  Dealer. 
Dragon,  of  great  celebrity  in  England,  at  Foster's,  1811-12,  and 
died,  as  I  was  informed,  of  a  thigh  broken  by  a  kick  ;  got  some 
good  stock.  Tup,  also  at  Foster's — whether  before  or  after,  I 
can't  say.  He  was  by  Javelin,  and  of  good  action,  but  blind, 
and  not  much  patronized.  Collector,  a  season  or  two,  and 
tliough  old,  left  some  stock,  and  died  of  a  fall  on  the  ice,  winter 
1814,  He  was  by  Mark  Antony  out  of  Ladj^-legs,  a  most  capi- 
tal racer,  and  got  Snap-Dragon.  Boaster,  imp.,  two  or  three 
seasons — ^fine  coat  and  good  form — and  died  1819, 1  think,  at  J. 
Harding's.  Pacolet — a  gray,  and  very  beautiful — got  by  Citi- 
zen, imp.,  out  of  Epp's  mare,  dam  of  Wonder,  was  brought 
here  to  beat  Maria — Hayne's.  He  did  not  do  that,  nor  would 
any  other  horse,  brought  here,  have  done  it,  for  she  had  beaten, 
with  ease,  all  rivals,  and  was  by  Diomed,  imp. ;  her  dam  a  very 
high-formed  mare  by  Bel  Air.  He  was  then  advertised  by  J. 
Jackson  and  T.  Childers,  and  under  the  immediate  supervision 
of  J.  W.  Clay,  after  some  years,  sent  South  ;  where  his  sons, 
Brushy-mountain,  out  of  a  Wonder,  and  Cumberland,  out  of 


142  TilK    IIORSE. 

Jackson's  Daredevil  mare,  distinguished  themselves.  Col.  Elliott 
brought  him  back  to  Sumner,  where  he  stood  until  his  death, 
Oct()l)or,  1825.  He  got  also — Murphy's  Pacolet,  out  of  a  Coeur- 
de-Lion,  Jerry,  and  tlie  very  distinguished  Morgiana,  out  of 
Black  Sophia,  by  Top-gallant,  son  of  Gallatin,  Williamson's 
Pacolet,  Massena,  out  of  a  Eagland  Diomed,  and  the  brothers, 
Messiein-s  Tonson,  Sir  Richard,  Henry,  and  Champion,  out  of  the 
line  of  Boswell  Johnson's  mare,  Yirginia-bred,  and  stated  by  him 
to  be  full-bred.  Tonson  beat  ever}'  thing  here  of  his  day,  and 
afterward  beat,  at  Boydton,  the  celebrated  Sally  Walker,  against 
all  Col.  W.  R.  Johnson's  skill  and  management.  Richard  was 
the  most  beautiful  horse  that  could  be  led  on  a  show  ground, 
and  a  good  racer  at  light  weight,  and  very  game,  but  rather 
delicate.  The  two  last  were  colts  of  form  and  substance,  but 
not  so  good  or  so  fortunate  as  their  elder  brothers.  Pacolet 
died  at  Col.  Elliott's  stables,  October,  1825.  SuAvarrow,  from 
Kentucky,  with,  or  a  little  before,  Pacolet — pretty  and  high- 
bred— and  Barksdale's  Gray  Diomed,  in  very  good  form  ;  Sec- 
ond Diomed,  also  fine ;  Ragland's  Diomed,  Constitution  and 
Diomedon,  and  another  Wonder — Hix's — in  Williamson,  and 
others  of  less  note.  Contemj)orary  with  these,  was  Bagdad, 
sold  by  the  Minister  to  England  from  Tripoli  to  George  Bar- 
clay ;  exported  to  New  York,  and  brought  here  in  1823,  with  a 
certificate,  in  the  French  language,  asserting  his  pnre  Arabian 
blood ;  died  February,  1836,  and  left  some  good  stock,  more 
remarkable  for  speed  than  bottom.  Contemporary  with  him, 
of  the  Sir  Archy  stock,  stood,  at  Sumner's,  Gray  Archy,  Timo- 
leon,  and  Pacific ;  at  Col.  Elliott's,  ITapoleon  ;  and  at  Parson 
Cryer's,  Stockholder  and  Crnsader ;  Rattler  in  Rutherford; 
Contention  in  Williamson  ;  Sir  William  and  Arab  I  saw,  in 
Nashville,  but  have  no  memoranda  to  show  where  they  were 
stationed  ;  and  Carolinian,  one  season  at  Nashville,  with  others 
of  less  distinction.  Stockholder  and  Pacific  were,  I  think,  the 
favorites.  The  first  got  Betsy  Malone,  and  others  I  can't  name ; 
the  last  got  Red-doe,  Pactolus,  &c.,  for  Sumner ;  and  he  got, 
for  Gen.  Harding,  the  very  distinguished  mare  Gamma,  in  very 
high  form,  and  her  brother,  Epsilon,  thought  to  be  better ;  but 
meeting  with  an  accident  in  a  private  trial,  he  was  put  to  cover- 
ing, and  is  producing  good  runners.     Indeed,  in  him  the  beauty 


THE   TONSON    FAMILY.  143 

of  Richard  and  the  strength  of  Pacitic  are  combined  in  an  emi- 
nent degree.  The  Sir  Archy's  bring  me  down  to  the  hiter  im- 
portations, and  as  Gen.  Harding  is  more  conversant  with  them, 
I  will  close  with  the  remark,  that  Leviathan,  imp.  by  J.  Jack- 
son, has  got  more  first-rate  racers  than  any  other  horse  since 
Sir  Archy ;  that  Glencoe,  not  often,  but  sometimes,  when  the 
cross  hits,  gets  a  capital  racer,  especially  at  long  distances, 
and  that  Priam,  of  Merritt  &  Co.'s  importation,  was  the  most 
superb  large  horse  I  ever  saw.  Citizen,  imp.  to  !N^orth  Carolina 
by  Gen  Carney,  had  more  accurate  proportions  and  higher 
finish — a  more  game  Arabian  look  and  carriage,  than  any  native 
or  imported  that  I  ever  had  the  pleasure  to  look  upon.  Pacolet 
had  the  Arabian  air,  but  wanted  something  of  his  sire's  finish 
in  the  shoulder.  Yet  his  proud  and  lofty  bearing  sustained  him 
in  competition  with  the  best  English  horses  here  of  his  day— 
viz ;  Boaster,  fine  ;  Eagle,  1821-2,  large  and  grand — and  the 
very  best  Yirginia-breds.  He  imparted  symmetry,  and  finish, 
and  game,  and  fine  temper  to  his  stock.  Pacific,  got  also  John 
Dawson,  his  dam  by  Gray  Archy,  gr.  dam  sister  to  Brushy 
Mountain.  He  was  a  superb,  large  horse,  and  a  good  runner, 
and  splendid  on  parade. 

N.  Swiss  was  one  season  at  Sumner's  with  Pacific,  and 
O'Kelly  was  in  Il^ashville,  about  1835.  Most  probably  there 
were  others,  not  found  in  this  communication,  that  have  been 
here  or  in  adjoining  counties,  that  have  had  some  influence. 
Conqueror,  fine  and  well-bred,  here  and  in  Williamson,  ought 
not  to  be  omitted,  though  I  can't  fix  the  time.  Bluster,  im- 
ported, here  1826,  in  "Williamson  1827-8,  and  died  there  after 
the  season.  Yours,  &c., 

"Will.  "Williams. 

Poplar  Grove,  near  Nashville,  Tenn.  ) 
March  25,  1856.      J 

SiE ; — On  reading  over  the  above,  I  observe  that  what  I 
have  said  seems  to  assert  the  Tonson  family  were  out  of  Boswell 
Johnson's  Yirginia-bred,  when  I  meant  they  were  traced  to  her. 
The  pedigree — b.  c.  Sir  John,  got  by  Pacolet,  dam  b.  by  Top- 
gallant, gr.  dam  ch.  ro.,  or  gray,  by  Gray  Medley  out  of  John- 
son's Yirginia-bred,  stated  by  him  to  be  a  full-bred  mare.  Bos- 
well, if  I  mistake   not   the   name,  was  brother   to  Chapman 


144:  THE    HORSE. 

Johnson,  and  a  man  of  intelligence  ana  respectability.  Elliott 
used  to  say  the  Gray  Medley  mare  was  a  sort  of  milk  and  cider 
color.  Cryer  bought  either  her  or  the  Top  filly  at  Johnson's 
sale.  Foxall,  an  Englishman,  and,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  a 
Yorkshireman,  married  Cryer's  widow,  and  brought  Sir  John 
Kichard  on  the  turf,  with  the  aid  of  Elliott  and  "Williams. 
"When  Sir  John  became  a  winner,  his  name  was  changed  to 
Monsieur  Tonson,  and  his  dam  took  the  name  of  Madame  Ton- 
son.  Top-gallant  was  a  verj'  fine  horse,  bred  in  Georgia.  His 
pedigree  runs — Got  by  Gallatin,  dam  by  Wildair,  Black  and  all 
Black.  By  Wildair  we  of  the  South  and  South-west  mean  the 
son  of  Fearnought  out  of  Kitty  Fisher,  Col.  Symmes'  horse, 
and  not  the  Maryland  "Wildair,  Sims'  horse,  son  of  Delancy's 
imp.  Wildair.  By  Black  and  all  Black,  was  probably  meant 
Skip wi til's  horse,  son  of  imp.  Brunswick.  As  to  Brimmer,  my 
father  bought  Eclipse,  about  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  of  Col. 
Harris,  and  he  stated  that  Eclipse  was  the  sire  of  Col.  Goode's 
Brimmer,  confirmed  by  a  circumstantial  statement  in  one  vol- 
ume of  the  American  Turf  Register,  though  it  is  briefly  stated, 
in  another  volume,  that  Brimmer  was  by  Yaliant.  Having 
thus  rectified  and  explained — I  have  learned  from  Dr.  Robert- 
son that  his  father,  the  old  General,  brought  here  the  first 
thoroughbred — he  Ihinks  called  Why-not — from  Maryland;  my 
note  says — by  Fearnought,  dam  by  Othello,  about  1788.  He 
says  his  father  and  others,  then  and  afterward,  had  many 
Spanish  mares.  Add  to  my  preceding  list,  about  1815-16 — 
Highlander  imp.,  a  finely  formed  white,  small,  but  except  a 
bad  ear,  well-finished ;  and  Childers,  a  gray,  imp. — neither 
much  patronized- -and  Doublehead,  b.  by  Diomed,  his  dam, 
Major  Park  said,  was  a  Fearnought  and  Janus.  Park  bought 
the  Bel  Air  mare,  dam  of  Hayne's  Maria,  to  breed  to  him,  and 
I  sold  him  the  Wildair  mare,  dam  of  Orion  by  Stirling,  for  the 
same  purpose.  After  all,  I  may  liave  forgotten,  or  never  known, 
some  good  stallions  in  middle  Tennessee. 

If  your  object  be  a  general  stud-book  and  sporting  maga- 
zine, then  permit  me  to  say,  that  Jolly  Roger — Roger  of  the 
Yale,  in  England,  imp.  to  Yii-ginia  in  1748 — according  to  the 
opinion  of  men  conversant  in  such  matters,  was  distinguished 
among  the  early  importations  ;  that  Janus,  ch.  by  Janus,  Old 


DISTINGUISHED    STALLKJNS.  145 

Fox,  Bald  Gallowaj,  produced  the  fleetest,  then  and  since 
known,  as  quarter-horses — quarter-mile  racers.  In  my  early  boy- 
hood, I  saw,  at  Col.  John  Dawson's,  Fabricius,  a  brown,  by  old 
Janus,  dam  by  Partner,  Jolly  Roger,  Mary  Gray — very  fine. 
A  little  later,  I  saw  old  Mark  Antony  in  the  stable  of  Peter 
Morgan,  sheriff  of  Halifax  County,  N.  C.  He  was  very  dark 
brown,  almost  a  black,  the  bay  color  visible  on  the  muzzle  and 
flank.  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  saw  a  horse  in  higher  form, 
except,  perhaps.  Citizen.  Mark  greatly  improved  the  stock. 
And  old  Fearnought  and  his  sons,  and  Mark  Antony,  brought 
the  turf  horse  to  a  high  state  of  perfection.  Brimmer  and  Col- 
lector, with  as  good  training,  Avere,  perhaps,  equal  to  the  good 
ones  of  the  present  day.  Shark  and  Medley  then  came  along, 
both  capital,  and  both  produced  game  stock.  About  1790  to 
1794,  I  frequently  saw  Celer,  by  Janus,  dam  Mead's  Aristotle 
mare.  He  was  highly  finished,  and  gave  both  speed  and  bot- 
tom. Bel  Air  and  Gray  Diomed,*!  saw  early  in  the  present 
century ;  both  very  fine,  and  left  good  stock.  Then  old  ch. 
Diomed,  who  had  no  equal,  nor  any  thing  like  a  parallel,  for 
the  number  and  excellence  of  his  sons,  since  Fearnought.  Con- 
temporary and  Bedford  got  good  stock  at  light  weights,  espe- 
cially Gallatin,  &c.  And  Spread  Eagle,  good,  especially  at 
high  weights,  got  Maid  of  the  Oaks,  &c.  Then  Citizen,  im- 
ported 1803,  about  18  yrs.  old — as  elastic  and  lively  as  a  colt, 
and  apjDroaching  perfection  nearer  than  any  horse  I  ever  saw — 
did  good  service,  and  his  descendants,  especially  Pacolet  and 
his  stock,  were,  and  yet  are,  held  in  high  estimation  for  beauty, 
finish,  and  game.  Sir  Archy  was  foaled  in  1805,  and  died,  as  I 
have  understood,  27  yrs.  old  ;  some  make  him  equal  to  his  sire, 
and  other  sportsmen  and  breeders  give  him  the  preference.  Of 
the  modern  importations,  I  will  only  say ;  Leviathan  stands 
next  to  Sir  Archy  ;  that  Glencoe  gets  some  very  superior  racers, 
especially  at  long  distances  ;  and  that  Priam  M\as  a  prince 
among  the  chiefest. 

Of  the  trotters  I  say  nothing.  Of  the  rackers  I  say  that 
Thomas  E.  Tuinner,  of  Warren,  N.  C,  about  1790,  imported 
from  Karragansett  Bay,  a  light  ch.  in  color  and  form,  called 
Free  and  Easy,  and  as  was  his  name  so  was  his  pace.  His  like 
I  have  not  since  seen.  His  owner,  in  a  ride  from  Halifax  to 
Vol.  I.— 10 


146  THE    HORSE. 

Warrenton,  after  the  season,  permitted  him  to  go  too  freely,  and 
he  died  in  consequence.  Afterward  Ranger,  dark  ch.,  and  of 
good  substance,  was  brought  from  the  same  district  of  country, 
by  Sam.  Williams,  I  think,  of  Warren.  Here  I  sliall  name  only 
old  Copper-bottom  ;  he  was  a  ch.  ro.,  brought  hither,  old,  from 
Kentucky,  stood  three  seasons,  and  died  about  18-16.  His  sire 
or  grand-sire  is  said  to  have  been  a  Canadian,  and  his  dam  well- 
bred.     They,  his  colts,  commanded  high  prices  for  the  saddle. 

Pedigrees  in  the  South,  prior  to  the  issuing  of  the  Turf 
Kegister,  depended  on  manuscripts  or  memory,  and  thence  fol- 
lowed transpositions  and  sometimes  errors.  Timoleon,  one  of 
Sir  Archy's  best,  was  a  horse  of  great  size,  correct  proportions 
and  finish,  good  even  to  the  hoofs,  without  apparent  adulter- 
ation— dam  by  Saltram,  imp. ;  Wildair,  Symmes' ;  Fallow,  imp, ; 
Driver ;  Yampire,  imp.  There  are  many  Drivers,  and  we  are 
not  informed  which  ;  and  as  to  Fallow,  he  has  been  said  to  have 
been  a  cart-horse,  imported*  to  South  Carolina.  According  to 
Lawrence,  no  three  parts  bred,  was  ever  known  to  go  the  dis- 
tance •,  and,  as  I  believe  with  him,  that  full-blood,  at  least,  is 
necessary  to  enable  a  horse  to  go  the  distance  in  competition 
with  those  purely  bred,  therefore,  I  have  supposed  Fallow  to  be 
a  misprint,  for  Fellow,  by  Cade,  foaled  in  1757,  and  said  to  have 
been  imported  ;  Yampire,  foaled  the  same  year.  Of  Stockhold- 
er's pedigree,  we  have  had  several  versions  ;  the  last  edition 
says — got  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  Citizen,  imp. ;  Stirling,  imp. ; 
Mousetrap — said  to  be  English  Jack  Rap,  imp.  ;  Eclipse  ;  Fear- 
nought, imp.  ;  Apollo  ;  Jcinus,  imp.  ;  Partner — Moore's — imp.  , 
Silver  Eye,  imp.  ;  Jolly  Roger,  imp.,  out  of  Mary  Gray,  imp. 
It  may  be  true  to  Fearnought,  and  it  is  probable  tliat  Partner, 
was  not  Moore's,  but  the  son  of  Traveller  out  of  Selima,  or 
Janus,  or  Silver  E^-e,  or  possibly  two  of  those  may  stand  before 
Jolly  Roger  in  the  pedigree,  and  close  with  Mary  Gray.  She 
is  said  to  have  been  foaled  17-42-4  by  Roundhead  out  of  Ring- 
bone, and  to  have  brought  several  fillies  to  Jolly  Roger. 
Moore's  Partner  was  probably  bred  between  1825  and  1830. 
Grizewood's  in  1831.  As  to  Silver  Eye,  I  can  neither  find  him 
in  Weatherby  nor  Pick.  I  think,  in  the  American  Turf  Regis- 
ter, he  is  said  to  be  by  the  Cullen  Arabian. 


OBITUAKY    OF    STALLIONS. 


147 


OBITUARIES. 


Ch.  Janus,  imp.,  died  about    . 

Fearnought,  b.,  imp.,  died  about 

Eclipse,  native,  b.,  died  about 

Celer,  native,  ch.      " 

Mark  Antony,  br.,    " 

Shark,  imp.,  br.,       " 

Medley,  gr.,  imp.,     " 

Spread  Eagle,  b.,      " 

Gray  Diomed  " 

Messenger,  gr.,  imp.,  died  about 

Ch.  Diomed,  imp.,  died  about 

Cceur-de-Lion,  imp.,  died    . 

Dragon,  ch.,  of  a  kick,   . 

Wonder,  ch.,  February,  on  the  road,  of  colic, 

Boaster,  b.,  imp.,  autumn, 

Pacolet,  gr.,  October,  of  colic, 

Oscar,  br.,  November,  of  colic, 

Eagle,  b.,  imp.,  . 

Constitution,  summer,    . 

Bluster,  imp.,  autumn, 

Buzzard,  ch.,  imp.. 

Sir  Archy,  about 


1780,  Va., 
1776,  Va., 
1790,  Va., 
1802,  N.  C. 
1793^,  N.  C. 
1796,   Va., 


1799, 
1805, 
1806, 
1808, 


Va.. 
Ky., 
N.  C, 
N.  Y., 


1807-8,  Va., 
1809, 

1812,  Tenn., 
1815,  Tenn., 
1819,  Tenn., 

1825,  Tenn., 

1826,  Tenn., 

1827,  Ky., 

1827,  Tenn., 

1828,  Tenn., 
1811,  Ky., 
1832-3,  N.  C, 


Trs.  o 

33. 

26. 

20. 

28. 

32-3. 

25. 

23. 

13. 

20. 

28. 

30-1. 

20. 

25. 

15. 

24. 

17. 

11. 

30. 

22. 

20. 

24. 

27-8. 


I  liave  had  the  above  on  such  authority  as  I  credited  at  the 
time,  and  think  them  correct,  or  nearly  so.  Obituary  lists  are 
not  only  a  matter  of  curiosity,  but  serve  to  detect  forgeries  in 
some  cases. 

Citizen,  and  Mark  Antony,  and  Celer,  and  Bel  Air,  and 
Gray  Diomed,  and  Pacolet,  were,  in  point  of  fact,  nearer  the 
Arabian,  and  approximated  nearer  the  heau  ideal,  than  any  of 
the  importations  at  the  close  of  the  last  or  ccmmencement  of 
the  present  century.  They  are,  to  my  taste,  Turk.  The  Dio- 
meds,  the  Archy s,  the  Leviathans,  were  remarkable  for  size 
and  stride  ;  but  if  among  them  you  found  a  beauty,  you  had  to 
look  to  the  dam,  viz.  ;  Wonder,  dam  by  Tippoo  Saib,  son  of 
Lindsay's  Arabian ;  Second  Diomed,  gray,  dam  by  Clockfast ; 
Barksdale's  Gray  Diomed,  who,  through  Brimmer  and  Polly 
Flaxen,  united  the  Godolphin  and  Darley  Arabians ;  John 
Dawson,  a  bay — a  superb,  large  horse,  got  by  Pacific — had  by 
his  dam  a  Gray  Medley,  a  Pacolet,  and  two  Tippoo  Saib  crosses. 
He  was  a  good  one  on  the  turf  under  bad  management,  and 


148  THE    HORSE 

took  a  premium  at  an  agricultural  show  ;  and  had  he  been 
trained  by  Williams,  and  kept  and  sustained  by  Elliott,  as  a 
stallion,  he  would,  in  all  probability,  have  distinguished  himself 
in  both  capacities.  I  do  not  know  what  became  of  him  ;  but  I 
do  know  he  might  have  stood  by  Eagle  and  Dragon,  and  not 
suffered  by  the  comparison. 

Will.  Williaais. 


HISTOKT 

OF  THE  BLOOD  HORSE  IN  NEW  YORK. 

Henry  W.  Herbert,  Esq. 

Dear  Si)'  / — A  short  time  since,  I  received  a  letter  from  a 
much  esteemed  friend — the  Hon.  John  A.  King — covering  one 
from  yon  to  him,  making  inquiries  in  relation  to  blood-horses 
and  course-racing,  which  he  seemed  to  think  I  could  answer 
better  than  himself.  Although  my  pursuits  may  have  caused  me 
to  examine  more  critically,  and  think  more  deeply  on  the  sub- 
jects of  inquiry,  yet  my  ability  to  place  on  paper  suitably  facts 
and  ideas  is  so  innneasnrably  inferior  to  his,  that  though  I  may 
possibly  communicate  more  information,  it  will  probably  be 
much  less  interesting  than  if  furnished  by  his  more  ready  and 
gifted  pen.  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may  be,  I  will  endeavor  to 
give  such  information  as  best  I  can;  first  premising  that, 
although  particularly  interested  in  the  blood-horse,  and  having 
witnessed  most  of  the  important  races  in  this  vicinity  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  I  have  few  records,  except  those  which  are 
common  to  the  whole  country — the  sporting  periodicals  of  the 
last  thirty  years.  Indeed,  so  indefatigable  have  been  the  edi- 
tors of  those  journals,  that  I  presume  the  name  and  character  of 
every  distinguished  horse  of  the  whole  country  may  be  found 
within  these  pages.  From  these  and  other  sources,  you  will 
obtain  information  of  many  of  which  I  know  little,  while  I  will 
endeavor  to  name  those,  which  formerly  gave  cliaracter  to  the 
stock  of  the  North. 


150  THE   nOESE. 

It  is  well  known  th.at,  at  a  very  early  day  in  mir  history, 
frequent  importations  of  horses  were  made,  but,  it  is  believed, 
without  any  particular  reference  to  blood.  For  some  time, 
however,  previous  to  the  Revolution,  a  spirit  of  emulation  ex- 
isted in  these  colonies,  and  the  thoroughbred  horse  became  an 
object  of  interest.  Among  the  earliest  of  our  importations, 
which  laid  a  foundation,  broad  and  deep,  of  the  racing  stock  of 
the  North,  were  Wild  air  and  the  Cub  mare,  in  1763,  by  Mr. 
Delancy.  Soon  after  came  Sloven,  in  1765  ;  Figure,  in  1766  ; 
Lath,  in  1768,  and  Whirligig  in  1773.  All  these  contributed 
more  or  less  to  our  racing-stock ;  but  to  Bashaw  the  produce  of 
Wildair  and  the  Cub  mare,  foaled  shortly  after  their  arrival  in 
this  country,  and  to  Figure  are  we  mainly  indebted  for  placing 
us  on  an  equality,  at  least,  with  earlier  and  much  more  exten- 
sive breeders  at  the  South.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century, 
and  the  very  beginning  of  this,  a  number  of  superior  stallions 
were  imported,  which,  standing  at  moderate  prices,  greatly  im- 
proved the  general  stock  of  the  country.  Among  these  may 
be  mentioned,  Slender,  in  1785  ;  Messenger,  in  1792  ;  Bajazet 
and  Highlander,  in  1794 ;  Light  Infantry  and  Sourcrout,  about 
the  same  time ;  Baronet,  in  1795 ;  Alexander,  in  1797 ;  and 
Expedition,  in  1802.  All  of  these  made  a  favorable  change  in  the 
racing  and  road-stock  of  the  Korth.  But  immeasurably  superior 
to  all  others  was  Messenger,  and  take  him  all  in  all,  unquestion- 
ably the  best  horse  ever  brought  to  America.  He  not  only 
produced  race-horses  of  the  first  order,  both  at  long  and  short 
distances,  but  as  roadsters  his  get  was  unequalled.  Well  do  I 
remember  him  when  standing  at  the  stable  of  Townsend  Cock, 
in  this  county.  His  large  bony  head,  rather  short  straight  neck, 
with  windpipe  and  nostrils  nearly  twice  as  large  as  ordinary, 
with  his  low  withers,  and  shoulders  somewhat  upright,  but 
deep,  close,  and  strong.  But  behind  these  lay  the  perfection 
and  power  of  the  machine.  His  barrel,  loin,  hips,  and  quarters 
were  incomparably  superior  to  all  others.  His  hocks  and  knees' 
were  unusually  large  ;  below  them  his  limbs  were  of  medium 
size,  but  flat,  strong  and  remarkably  clean,  and,  either  in  stand- 
ing or  in  action,  their  position  was  perfect. 

Baronet,  too,  left  his  mark  on  our  stock  ;  of  all  the  importa- 
tions, none  equalled  him  in  elegance  and  finish.     And  at  a  later 


COURSE-KACIXG    AT   THE   NORTH.  151 

period,  when  his  get  and  tliat  of  Messenger  mingled,  it  was  the 
abiding  hope  of  the  breeder  to  obtain  the  fine  forehand,  rich 
color,  and  perfect  symmetry  of  a  Baronet,  with  the  speed,  power, 
and  will  of  a  Messenger.  Light  Infantry  and  Expedition  were 
horses  of  similar  character,  possessing  great  beauty  of  form  and 
elegance  of  action.  Both  contributed  essentially  to  the  general 
improvement,  and  in  several  instances  their  get  obtained  dis- 
tinction on  the  turf. 

Of  later  importations — Phoenix,  in  1803  ;  Bussorah,  in  1819  ; 
Eoman,  in  1823  ;  Barefoot,  in  1827  ;  Hedgeford  and  Autocrat, 
in  1833  ;  Trustee,  in  1835 — several  have  produced  at  least  one 
of  great  excellence — ^Trustee,  the  wonder.  Fashion ;  Roman,  a 
Treasurer  ;  Barefoot,  a  Clara  Howard ;  and  Hedgeford,  a  Duane 
— but  their  many  failures  under  favorable  circumstances,  at 
least  suggest  the  inquiry,  whether  the  dam  has  not  quite  as 
much,  if  not  more  to  do  in  the  production  of  these  isolated  cases 
of  superior  excellence,  as  the  sire. 

Of  Bussorah  and  other  Arabians  which  have  been  imported, 
although  evidently  great  pains  have  been  bestowed  on  their 
selection,  it  is  admitted  that  none  have  added  essentially  to  the 
value  of  our  stock.  Bnssorah  possessed  great  beauty,  was  of 
approved  pedigree,  and  free  from  any  particular  defects  of  form, 
consequently  great  hopes  were  entertained  of  his  usefulness; 
but,  after  experimenting  for  a  great  lengtli  of  time  with  him 
and  others,  the  conclusion  has  become  irresistible  that  a  horse, 
to  insure  superiority  either  in  performance  or  production,  must 
not  only  be  perfect  in  pedigree,  and  passably  good  in  his  shapes, 
but  possess  that  high  and  commanding  form  which  gives  ex- 
ceeding power,  while  at  the  same  time  it  insures  ease  of  action. 

With  regard  to  the  commencement  of  course-racing  at  the 
North,  I  am  not  particularly  informed.  But  previous  to  the 
Eevolution  there  existed,  near  the  centre  of  the  county,  a  pub- 
lic course,  called  I^ewmarket ;  and  also  one  at  Jamaica,  called 
Beaver  Pond  ;  at  both  of  which  trials  of  speed  frequently  took 
place,  but  whether  at  regular  intervals  is  not  known.  As  early 
as  1800,  courses  existed  at  Albany,  Poughkeepsie,  and  Harlem, 
in  this  State,  on  which  purses,  from  one  to  four-mile  heats,  were 
contended  for.  It  is  believed,  however,  that  until  1804,  no  reg- 
ularly organized  club  existed  here.     In  this  year  an  associa- 


152  THE    IIOKSE. 

tiou,  principally  of  Long  Island  agriculturists,  was  formed  for 
five  years  ;  the  old  Newmarket  Course  was  remodelled,  and 
purses  given,  in  May  and  October  of  each  year,  for  four,  three, 
and  two-mile  heats.  At  the  expiration  of  the  five  years,  find- 
ing it  difficult  to  raise  sufficient  funds,  or  enforce  regulations  on 
an  unenclosed  course,  the  same  gentlemen  reorganized  the  so- 
ciety, and  established  an  enclosed  course,  giving  it  the  same 
name,  about  a  mile  north  of  the  former.  It  is  worthy  of  re- 
mark, that  on  these  courses,  at  an  early  day,  some  of  those 
horses,  whose  efforts  and  characters  are  still  most  distinguished 
in  our  State  and  country,  made  their  first  entry.  On  the  former, 
Tippoo  Sultan,  Hambletonian,  Briglit  Phcebus,  Miller's  Dam- 
sel, and  Empress,  obtained  their  first  laurels,  to  be  variously 
worn  in  this  and  another  field  of  usefulness.  Sultan,  after  a 
continued  series  of  victories  on  the  turf,  went  into  the  breeding- 
stud  with  his  flag  flying  at  the  piimacle,  there  to  droop,  and 
finally  trail  in  the  dust.  Hambletonian,  with  varied  success  as 
a  racer,  as  a  stallion  became  distinguished  for  the  elegance  and 
finish,  as  well  as  speed  and  endurance  of  his  get,  for  the  saddle, 
harness,  and  trotting-course.  Phcebus,  though  a  good  one, 
failed  to  repose  on  the  elevated  platform  Avliich  his  pedigree, 
fine  appearance,  and  early  performance  induced  his  friends  to 
erect.  The  wreath  so  deservedly  bestowed  on  the  two  most 
magnificent  fillies  that  ever  graced  the  Northern  turf,  now 
faded  and  now  bloomed,  until  the  performances  of  Eclipse,  the 
son  of  one,  and  of  Ariel,  the  grand-daughter  of  the  other,  added 
roses  whose  enduring  perfume,  while  it  incites  to  future  struggles 
for  victory,  will  ever  tend  to  temper  the  ardor  of  exultation  or 
soothe  the  anguish  of  defeat. 

As  evidence  that  .the  renown  obtained  on  this  course  was 
fairly  won,  it  is  only  necessary  to  state  that  Messrs.  Bond  and 
Hughs,  of  Philadelphia — whose  liberality,  judgment,  and  skill 
in  procuring,  training,  and  managing  their  horses,  was  scarcely 
second  to  that  of  Colonel  Johnson  and  Tayloe — regularly  at- 
tended here,  with  their  stable,  at  the  head  of  which  was  First 
Consul,  then  confessedly  among  the  very  best  of  the  South. 

On  the  latter  course.  Cock  of  the  Rock  and  Eclipse  first 
gave  evidence  of  those  powers  whicli   conducted   the  one  to 


THE    "  UNION    COURSE."  153 

eminence  ;  the  other,  by  an  unbroken  succession  of  victories,  to 
his  last  glorious  triumph. 

While  racing  continued  with  regularity  at  Newmarket,  the 
course  at  Harlem  was  also  kept  up  ;  and  for  a  short  period,  one 
was  established  at  Powle's  Hook,  in  Kew  Jersey,  opposite  New 
York  city.  But  not  until  1819  did  the  citizens  of  New  York 
manifest  a  just  appreciation  of  the  exciting  and  healthful  amuse- 
ment. In  this  year  an  association  was  formed,  principally  of 
citizens,  and  a  course  established  at  Bath,  in  the  county  of 
Kings,  on  Long  Island,  and  races  held  there  for  two  seasons. 
The  location,  however,  not  proving  satisfactory,  in  1821  the 
same  association  purchased  a  plot  of  ground  in  Queens  County, 
eight  miles  from  Brooklyn,  enclosed  it,  and  under  the  title  of 
the  "  Union  Course,"  largely  encreased  the  amount  of  purses, 
and  placed  racing  on  a  more  elevated  and  permanent  footing 
than  heretofore.  In  1828,  an  association  of  gentlemen  estab- 
lished a  course  in  Dutchess  County,  near  Poughkeepsie,  gave 
liberal  purses,  and  had  well-conducted  and  good  racing  for 
several  years.  In  1838,  individual  enterprise  established  the 
Beacon  Coarse  at  Hoboken,  New  Jersey,  opposite  New  York 
city.  Great  expense  was  incurred  in  grading  and  making  suit- 
able erections.  Large  purses  were  given,  and  for  a  time  its 
easy  access  from  the  city  rendered  it  exceedingly  popular. 

The  foregoing  are  believed  to  be  all  the  courses,  of  any  con- 
siderable note,  that  have  existed  in  this  State  or  adjacent ;  and 
it  is  somewhat  remarkable,  that  within  the  last  ten  or  fifteen 
years,  all  have  been  abandoned  except  in  Queens  County,  L.  I., 
and  here  principally  kept  up  by  the  trotting  fraternity,  with 
occasional  exhibitions  of  the  noblest  amusement  that  ever  stirred 
the  blood  or  engaged  the  mind  of  man.  Indeed  the  people 
seem  to  be  instinctively  drawn  to  a  county  which  has  ever  been 
the  focus  of  racing,  as  well  as  the  field  of  successful  breeding. 
Many  of  the  very  best  racers,  as  well  as  trotters,  have  been 
reared  within  her  limited  borders,  and  scarcely  a  stallion  of  any 
eminent  standing  at  the  North,  but  has  held  his  court  within 
her  precincts.  Evincing,  also,  the  spirit  and  liberality  of  her 
])eople,  and  not  irrelevant  to  the  subject  of  this  discursive  com- 
nmnication,  is  the  fact  that  about  the  year  1798  or  '99,  a  hunting- 
club  was  formed  by  gentlemen  of  the  Island  ;  a  pack  of  hounds 


154 


THE    110K8E. 


obtained,  and  located  about  four  miles  east  of  Jamaica,  and  as 
l^articularly  indicative  of  the  spirit  and  emulation  which  char- 
acterized its  members,  six  of  their  number  agreed  to  send  to 
England  and  imj^ort  each  a  horse  expressly  for  the  saddle. 
Among  the  most  successful  of  these  was  Eichard  Smith,  Esq., 
of  Suffolk  County,  who  in  old  "  Eoyal  George,"  obtained  the 
very  heau  ideal  of  a  hunter.  Many  amusing  anecdotes  were 
related  by  this  liberal,  high-toned,  but  facetious  gentleman,  of 
indulging  his  amateur  friends  from  the  city  with  a  ride  on  his 
favorite,  who  was  perfectly  docile  and  quiet  by  the  side  of  the 
cover  ;  but  the  moment  the  game  was  roused  and  the  pack  gave 
tongue,  no  ordinary  arm  could  restrain,  nor  fence  nor  furze  ap- 
parently impede  him,  until  he  had  arrived  in  their  midst,  where 
he  was  satisfied  quietly  to  continue. 

I  am  unwilling,  my  dear  sir,  to  close  this  communication 
without  the  endeavor  to  place  on  record  in  juxtaposition,  the 
names  and  characters  of  unquestionably  the  best  three  race- 
horses ever  bred  in  this  State.  They  were  on  the  turf  at  differ- 
ent periods,  but  each  in  his  day  was  as  confessedly  superior  to 
all  others  at  the  North,  as  in  intellectual  endowments  was  Web- 
ster in  Massachusetts,  Clay  in  Kentucky,  and  Calhoun  in  Caro- 
lina. I  allude  to  Mr.  Van  Ranst's  Potomac,  Tij^poo  Sultan,  and 
American  Eclipse.  The  first  a  son,  the  other  two  grandsons, 
of  Messenger.  Potomac  foaled  in  1796,  Sultan  in  1800,  Eclipse 
in  1814.  Each  ran  about  an  equal  number  of  races,  and  neither 
was  ever  beaten.  Of  Potomac's  races  several  were  short,  but 
never  from  choice  ;  his  friends  being  confident  he  was  the  fast- 
est, but  perfectly  certain  he  was  the  gamest  horse  then  on  the 
turf,  whenever  an  opponent  offered,  exerted  themselves  to  ex- 
tend the  distance  and  increase  the  stake,  but  in  every  case 
closed  with  the  best  proposition  they  could  obtain.  The  result 
invariably  proved  the  correctness  of  their  judgment. 

Often  have  I  listened  to  the  discussions  of  Mr.  Yan  Ranst 
and  my  late  father,  Major  William  Jones — of  whom  it  may  be 
said,  that  fi-om  early  manhood  up  to  more  than  fourscore  years 
of  age,  he  was  never  Avithout  a  race-horse  in  his  stable — relative 
to  the  respective  merits  of  the  two  horses  for  whom  they  enter- 
tained so  great  a  geographical  as  Avell  as  pecuniary  interest. 
Neither  could  resist  the  conclusion  that  Eclipse  was  the  supe- 


TIPPOO    SULTAN.  155 

rior,  but  both  agreed  that  Potomac  had  the  most  speed,  and  in 
the  endeavor  to  lix  the  point  in  a  four-mile  heat,  where  Eclipse 
would  pass  him,  they  confessed  themselves  at  fault,  for  in  all 
his  trials,  and  in  all  his  races,  he  was  never  known  to  falter. 

Sultan  triumphed  over  all  his  rivals  except  Damsel ;  owing 
to  various  causes  they  never  met.  Had  they  done  so,  both  in 
condition,  the  contest  would  have  been  severe  and  the  result 
doubtful.  But  this  could  scarcely  have  happened,  for  Damsel 
was  so  constitutionally  timid  and  excitable,  that  the  moment 
she  was  brought  near  a  public  course  or  stable,  she  would  refuse 
her  feed,  and  consequently  was  rarely  if  ever  in  order. 

All  these  three  horses  were  of  similar  form  and  character- 
istics, and  all  of  large  size — Sultan  highest  on  the  leg,  and  of  at 
least  twelve  inches  more  stride.  Their  great  superiority  arose 
from  their  exceeding  power  over  the  loin  and  in  the  hind  quar- 
ters, combined  with  a  deep  and  capacious  chest,  allowing  free 
play  to  the  lungs,  and  a  windpipe  and  nostril  which  enabled 
them  to  inhale  and  consume  with  ease  a  much  larger  quantity 
of  air  than  most  others. 

I  have  thus,  my  dear  sir,  answered  your  several  inquiries  to 
the  best  of  my  ability  ;  and  I  sincerely  regret  that  a  lack  of 
memoranda  and  record  prevents  my  giving  more  detailed  and 
specific  information  on  a  subject  which  will  always  possess  for 
me  the  deepest  interest.  Please  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  this 
at  your  convenience,  addressing  me  at  Cold  Sjiring  Harbor,  L.  I. 
I  remain,  dear  sir. 

Yours  with  much  respect, 

David  "VV.  Jones. 

April  3d,  1856. 


PEDIGEEES, 

PERFORMANCES,     AND    ANECDOTES, 

OF  FAMOUS  AMERICAN  RACERS  OF  THE  MODERN  DAY. 

The  letter,  above  given,  of  an  eminent  and  distinguished  turf- 
man, whose  title  to  that  honorable  appellation  is  hereditary,  and 
known  as  widely  in  America  as  is  the  name  of  the  American 
Turf,  brings  down,  it  will  be  seen,  the  history  of  that  Turf  to 
what  may  be  called  its  palmiest  days — the  latter  portion  of  the 
first,  and  commencement  of  the  second  quarter  of  the  present 
century. 

Previous  to  the  Eevolution,  as  we  have  seen,  racing,  as  an 
established,  organized  institution,  was  nearly,  if  not  absolutely, 
confined  to  tlie  States  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  South  Caro- 
lina, which  were  then  emphatically  the  Racehorse  Region  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

Up  to  this  period,  with  but  few  exceptions,  all  the  distin- 
guished blood  mares  and  stallions  had  been  imported  into  those 
States,  and  in  them,  only,  did  a  distinct  and  very  noble  strain 
of  thorough  blood  exist,  which,  although,  of  course,  tracing 
directly  to  English  ancestry  on  both  sides,  may  be,  with  some 
propriety,  termed  Virginian  ;  since,  as  a  general  rule,  whether 
accidentally  or  from  choice,  the  pedigrees  of  nearly  all  the  im- 
portations run  back,  through  but  three  or  four  families,  to  the 
same  noted  progenitors ;  tlie  most  renowned  of  which,  perhaps, 
are  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  the  Byerly  Turk,  Spanker,  Grey- 


HORSE-RACING    IN    NEW    YORK.  157 

hound,  the  Wliite  Tnrk,  Dodswovth,  and  Layton's  Yiolet  Barb 
mare. 

It  is  undeniable  that  a  vast  number  of  the  early  Virginian 
pedigrees  are  not  susceptible  of  proof,  owing  to  reasons  amply 
enumerated  above ;  and  there  is  as  little  doubt  that  very 
many  have  been  fabricated,  and  are  the  merest  of  forgeries ; 
still,  it  is  clearly  in  evidence  that  many  animals,  and  those  the 
most  fashionable  and  successful  foal-getters  in  the  Southern 
racing  States,  were  of  the  unequalled  stock  above  indicated. 

Where,  as  compared  with  England,  the  number  of  families 
was  few,  the  choice  of  stallions  limited,  and,  more  than  all,  the 
original  number  of  imported  thoroughbred  mares,  as  progeni- 
trixes, yet  more  limited,  it  is  evident  that  the  horses  of  this  era 
must  have  been  very  much  in-bred  ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark, 
that  the  old  Virginia  pedigrees,  owing  to  the  early  infusion  of 
Godolphin  Arabian  and  Croft's  Partner  blood,  run  through 
fewer  generations  to  Oriental  parentage  on  both  sides,  than  the 
generality  of  English  horses  of  the  same  date.  It  is  said,  also, 
by  those  who  remember  the  strain  before  it  was  intermixed  with 
the  more  recent  English  blood,  that  the  horses  of  ante-revolu- 
tionary, and  early  post-revolutionary  fame,  retained  in  a  great 
degree  the  Arab  and  Barb  or  Turk  characteristics  in  height, 
figure,  and  qualities  ;  and  possessed  far  more  of  what  our  ances- 
tors intended  to  convey  by  the  words  a  Kacer  in  a  high  form, 
than  of  what  we  should  esteem  perfection  in  the  modern  fashion- 
able race-horse. 

It  will  be  observed,  in  the  communication  to  which  I  have 
referred,  that  it  was  not  until  the  year  1819,  that  the  citizens  of 
New  York  began  fully  to  appreciate  the  utility  and  practical 
excellence  of  horse-racing,  or  to  give  it  such  encouragement  as 
it  had  always  received  in  Virginia  and  Maryland ;  where  the 
majority  in  numbers,  and  the  whole,  one  might  say,  in  wealth, 
enterprise  and  education,  of  the  white  population,  were  coun- 
try gentlemen  of  athletic  habits,  out-of-door  tastes,  liberal  hands 
and  open  hearts,  which  belong  every  where,  and  belong,  it 
seems  to  me,  alone,  to  rural  aristocracies. 

And,  again,  it  was  not  until  ten  years  later,  in  the  autumn 
of  1829,  that  any  regular  publication  was  set  on  foot,  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  recovering  as  much  as  was  possible  of  the 


158  Tire    HORSE. 

lost  early  pedigrees  of  the  magnates  of  the  American  Turf,  and 
for  the  preservation  of  authentic  records  for  the  time  to  come. 
This  work,  Skinner's  American  Turf  Register  and  Sporting 
Magazine,  continued  for  ten  years  to  do  good  service  for  the 
cause  of  the  Turf,  and,  with  Edgar's  stud-book,  which  unfor- 
tunately never  was  completed,  constitutes  the  first  and  only  au- 
thority, presented  to  the  public,  on  which  reliance  can  be  placed 
as  to  the  blood  of  animals  asserted  to  be  thoroughbred. 

In  the  year  1839,  the  magazine  passed  into  the  hands  of  that 
most  able  editor  and  admirable  turf-writer,  Mr.  William  T.  Por- 
ter, of  New  York,  than  whom  the  Turf  of  America  has  had  no 
more  consistent  advocate,  or  more  strenuous  defender.  In  the 
close  of  1844,  the  Magazine  was,  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted, 
discontinued,  the  encouragement  not  being  found  adequate  to 
the  support  of  both  the  monthly  periodical  and  the  weekly 
Spirit  of  the  Times,  both  issued  from  the  same  office,  and  made 
up  in  some  part  of  the  same  materials. 

This  cessation  it  is  hardly  possible  too  greatly  to  deplore  ; 
for,  although  Mr.  Richards  continues  to  prepare  and  publish  a 
yearly  Turf-Eegister,  from  the  old  office,  containing  a  full  and 
accurate  record  of  races  and  racing  events,  and  a  register  of  the 
winning  horses  of  the  year,  there  is,  of  course,  no  space  for  such 
discussion  of  pedigrees,  disputed  or  not  fully  established,  or 
such  debate  on  intricate  questions  of  breeding,  running,  time, 
weights,  riders  and  the  like,  in  its  pages,  as  were  so  valuable  in 
those  of  the  famous  old  magazine  ;  inadequate  as  even  it  was 
to  fill  the  place  of  that  great  desideratum  of  the  American  horse 
world,  a  complete  and  careful  annual  American  stud-book. 

These  thoughts  may  seem  in  some  sort  superfluous ;  but, 
without  having  introduced  them,  I  should  find  it  somewhat  dif- 
ficult to  explain  what  I  mean  to  convey,  when  I  state  that  I 
consider  the  commencement  of  authentic  American  horse- 
racing  to  be  about  coeval  with  the  commencement  of  the  sec- 
ond quarter  of  the  present  century,  or,  at  the  most,  a  few  years 
earlier. 

I,  by  no  means,  intend  or  desire  by  this  expression  to  under- 
estimate the  genuineness  of  the  blood,  to  deny  the  excellence, 
speed,  stoutness,  or  authenticity  of  performance  of  the  cele- 
brated worthies  of  ante-revolutionary,  or  early  post-revolution- 


OBSCUEITY    OF   PEDIGKEES.  159 

ary  days,  any  more  than  I  undervalue  or  doubt  the  pedigree  or 
merits  of  the  great  forefathers  of  the  English  Turf,  in  the  days 
of  Queen  Anne,  and  of  the  first  monarchs  of  the  House  of 
Hanover. 

Much,  in  fact,  as  I  regard  the  fame  of  Buck- Hunter, 
Spanker,  Childers,  Cartouch,  Bald  Charlotte,  Matchem,  and  a 
hundred  others  one  might  name,  do  I  esteem  that  of  the  Fear- 
nought, Janus,  Celer,  Tryall,  Yorick,  Traveller,  and  the  mares 
Seliraa,  Kitty  Fisher,  Jenny  Cameron,  Jenny  Dismal,  and  many 
others,  of  American  immortality.  Tlie  pedigrees  of  many  of 
them  run  into  the  obscurity  of  time,  and  one  must  write  down, 
at  last,  unknown,  for  either  dam  or  sire,  as  is  the  case  with 
more  than  one  of  the  admitted  great  English  progenitors. 

For  instance — the  sire  of  Eockwood  is  unknown  ;  the  dams  • 
of  Coneyskins,  Clumsy,  Gray  Grantham,  and  Whynot — the 
grand-dams  of  Bay  Bolton,  Snake,  Jigg,  and  a  score  of  others, 
from  whom  it  is  held  glory  enough  to  be  descended,  are  all  un- 
hnown  ;  but  not,  for  that,  are  they  to  be  held  of  impure  or  cold 
blood. 

In  like  sort,  I  hold  it  indisputable  that  the  dams  of  many  of 
the  noblest  and  most  perfect — and,  to  judge  from  all  analogy, 
the  most  pure-blooded — of  the  progenitors  and  progenitrixes  of 
the  American  Turf,  are  unknown.  The  dain  of  Tasker's  Selima 
is,  I  hold  it,  unknown  ;  for  of  three  dams  assigned  to  her,  I  can- 
not find  that  she  has  any  claim  to  one.  Snap-dragon  by  Snap, 
out  of  whom  she  is  said  to  have  been  got,  was  not  foaled  until 
her  sire,  Godolphin,  was  dead.  The  large  Hartley  mare,  to 
whom  that  capital  turf-writer.  Observer,  assigns  her,  as  sister  to 
Babrakcmi,  had,  according  to  the  stud-book,  no  chestnut  filly 
by  Godolphin,  nor  any,  that  answers  to  the  date  of  Selima,  of 
any  color.  And  the  Fox  mare,  whose  dam  was  by  Childers, 
and  who  was  herself  dam  to  "Weasel  and  Daphne  by  Godolphin, 
had  no  other  foals  to  that  horse,  nor  any  foal  earlier  than 
1750-51,  in  which  year  Selima  is  said  to  have  been  imported. 
Tliis  last  is  Skinner's  pedigree  of  this  famous  mare.  Tlie  dam 
of  Jenny  Cameron  is  not  stated.  The  dam  of  Kitty  Fisher  is 
said  to  have  been  out  of  Bald  Charlotte,  by  the  Cullen  Arabian, 
but  there  is  no  show  of  proof  that  this  thrice  famous  mare  ever 
bore  a  filly  to  that  Arab.     And  again,  the  dam  of  Jenny  Dismal 


160  TllK    IIOKSK. 

is  recorded  to  have  been  a  "VViiitefoot  mare,  while  of  live  White- 
foot  mares  in  the  stud-book  not  one  appears  to  have  borne  a 
foal  to  Dismal,  the  son  of  Godolphin.  These  statements  I  do 
not  make  invidiously,  or  with  the  intent  to  disparage  the  purity 
of  the  blood  of  these  animals — of  which  I  have  no  doubt ;  but 
simply  to  show  that  the  same  want  of  absolute  authenticity  is 
apparent,  wlien  -sve  go  beyond  a  certain  date  in  both  England 
and  America,  that  date  being  more  recent  in  the  latter  country, 
owing  to  the  later  introduction  of  authentic  registries. 

Nor  does  this  want  of  authenticity  attach  to  pedigrees,  only ; 
or  even  in  the  greatest  degree  ;  for  it  is  much  more  apparent  in 
the  traditional  report  of  performances. 

The  absurd  myth  of  Flying  Childers  having  run  a  mile  in  a 
minute,  still  obtains — not  among  sportsmen,  for  of  course  there 
is  not  a  man,  who  knows  \vhat  a  race-horse  is,  either  in  Eng- 
land or  America,  at  this  day,  who  does  not  scoff  at  the  palpa- 
ble impossibility  of  the  thing — but  generally  among  the  vulgar ; 
although  it  has  been  made  sufficiently  clear  that,  in  the  only 
recorded  race  of  this  horse,  he  did  not  exceed  that  of  West 
Australian  in  England,  or  of  Lexington  or  Lecompte  in  this 
country. 

As  progenitors,  all  these  horses,  in  both  countries,  may  be 
considered,  then,  in  my  view,  as  entities,  or,  if  the  reader  prefer 
it,  facts — as  performers,  in  view  of  any  thing  which  M^e  know 
positively,  or  can  ascertain,  of  their  performances,  I  must  hold 
them  myths. 

Thus,  on  the  English  Turf,  while  I  do  not  dispute  or  doubt 
the  excellence  of  Flying  Childers,  Eegulus,  Matchem,  Marske, 
O'Kelly's  Eclipse,  and  other  such — for  they  must  have  been  un- 
deniably good  horses  to  do  that,  which  we  know  they  did  do — 
beat,  namely,  all  the  best  horses  of  their  respective  times,  at 
all  w^eights  and  distances — I  give  no  credence  whatsoever  con- 
cerning any  particular  or  special  performance  of  any  one  of 
them  ;  and  I  distinctly  assert  my  opinion,  that  there  is  nothing 
whatever,  beyond  the  idlest  and  emptiest  rumor,  on  which  to 
found  any  comparison  between  them  and  the  horses  of  to-day. 

On  the  English  Turf,  I  esteem  nothing  positively  authentic, 
in  the  shape  of  performances — apart,  I  mean,  from  pedigrees — 
yu'evious  to  the  institution  of  the  St.  Leger  stakes,  first  won  by 


THE   A^IEEICAJST   TUEF.  161 

Lord  Eockingham's  Sampson  fillj,  in  1776  ;  of  the  Oaks,  first 
won  hy  Lord  Derby's  Bridget,  in  1779,  and  of  the  Derby,  first 
won  by  Sir  Charles  Bimbury's  Diomed — sire  of  our  Sir  Archy — 
in  1780. 

So  on  the  American  Turf  I  hold  nothing,  as  on  record,  prior 
to  the  races  of  American  Eclipse  and  his  competitors. 

To  draw  a  parallel,  as  nearly  as  I  can  draw  one,  I  regard  the 
old  Yirginian  Turf,  prior  to  the  fifteenth  year,  at  least,  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  as  neither  more  nor  less  authentic  than  that 
of  England  up  to  the  time  of  English  Eclipse  ;  and  I  consider 
that  the  era  of  the  importation  and  covering  of  Diomed  and 
Messenger  in  the  United  States  as  parallel  to  that  of  O'Kelly's 
wonderful  stallion  in  the  old  country. 

Erom  the  day  when  the  sons  and  daughters  of  these  noble 
animals  began  to  run  upon  the  turfs  of  England  and  the  tracks 
of  America,  all  is  plain  and  on  record,  so  that  who  runs  may 
read. 

The  first  great  excellence  of  what  I  consider  the  authentic 
recorded  race-horse  of  America,  I  ascribe  to  what  I  call  the  first 
grand  post-revolutionary  cross  of  English  with  the  old  Yirginian 
blood,  produced  by  the  importation  of  the  two  horses  above 
named  ;  of,  almost  simultaneously,  Bedford,  Medley,  Gabriel ; 
and  of  Shark,  a  few  years  earlier. 

The  get  of  these  horses  are  collateral  here,  with  the  Hiii-h- 
flyers,  Florizels,  King  Ferguses,  Whalebones,  Waxys,  PotSos  and 
Beningbroughs  across  the  water,  and  their  posterity  hold  similar 
relations  and  relative  positions. 

The  palmy  time,  then,  of  the  Turf  in  America,  I  should  state 
to  have  lain  between  the  years  1815  and  1845,  the  former  date 
being  little  earlier  than  its  dawn,  the  latter  a  little  later  than 
the  first  symptoms  of  its  decline. 

For  without  asserting  that  the  quality  of  the  American 
thoroughbred  horse  has  as  yet  begun  to  fall  off,  or  its  character 
to  deteriorate,  I  do  maintain  that  the  racing  spirit  has  received 
a  severe  check  ;  one,  which  must  ultimately,  if  it  continue,  se- 
riously aftect,  if  not  destroy,  in  toto,  the  American  Race  horse, 
in  spite  of  all  his  glories,  all  his  excellencies,  and  all  the  incom- 
parable benefits  he  has  conferred  on  the  stock  of  the  country 
at  large — not  least  on  what  is  now  the  rage  of  the  North 
Vol.  I.— 11 


162  THE    HOKSE. 

and  West,  the  Trotting  Horse,  although  it  is  now  the  game 
and  cant  of  the  day  to  deny  the  influence  of  blood  in  this  class 
of  animals. 

The  wholesome  and  amicable  rivalry  of  the  Northern  and 
Southern  stables,  with  their — in  a  greater  or  lesser  degree — dis- 
tinctive families,  was  an  unquestionable  stimulus  to  breeders, 
and  told  its  tale  in  the  high  form  of  the  racers  which  we  used 
to  see  contending  in  the  good  days  of  the  30's — under  the 
auspices  of  such  men  as  Messrs.  Johnson  and  Tayloe,  Van 
Mater,  Wade  Hampton,  Bingaman,  Stevens,  Livingston,  Stock- 
ton, Tillotson,  Jones,  Gibbons,  and  many  more,  as  good  as  they, 
from  all  sections  of  the  country. 

Of  those  palmy  days  it  is  with  pleasure  that  I  can  say 

quaeque  ipse  celerrima  vidi 

Et  quorum  pars  parva  fui. 

The  great  race  of  races,  it  is  true,  was  one  of  the  things  bye- 
gone  when  I  iirst  trod  the  soil  of  America  ;  but  the  first  Amer- 
ican race-horse  on  whom  I  set  eyes,  in  the  first  year  of  my  no- 
vitiate, was  the  champion.  Eclipse ;  and  the  next,  his  gallant 
competitor.  Sir  Henry.  Ariel,  the  most  successful  and  enduring, 
perhaps,  of  all  the  progeny  of  the  great  northern  conqueror, 
was  withdrawn  from  the  scene  of  her  glories,  already  ;  but  it 
was  my  fortune  to  witness,  as  my  entering  to  the  turf  of  Long 
Island,  the  splendid  twenty-mile  mare-race,  the  prize  of  which 
was  borne  off  by  that  magnificent  and  honest  animal.  Black 
Maria ;  who,  singularly  enough,  combines  all  the  imported 
blood  which  I  have  named,  together  with  the  old  Virginian 
strains  of  Clockfast,  Fearnought,  Yorick,  and  the  rest,  having, 
through  her  sire,  American  Eclipse,  Diomed,  Messenger,  Bed- 
ford and  Medley  crosses,  and  by  her  dam.  Lady  Lightfoot,  Sir 
Archy  and  Shark  crc 

From  that  time 
one  constant  and  continued  succession  of  good,  nay !  great 
horses  on  the  turf,  and  meeting  after  meeting,  year  after  year, 
spring  and  fall,  from  Long  Island  to  New  Orleans,  there  was 
one  constant  promise,  and  that  promise  made  good,  of  fine  sport 
for  sportsmen.  Tliose  were  the  days  of  such  mares  as  Trifle, 
Bonnets  of  Blue,  Fasliion,  Peytona,  Reel,  and  many  more  sec- 


MINGO CLARK  )N POSTBOY.  163 

ond,  if  second,  to  none  but  the  best  of  these  ;  and  these,  all 
except  one  or  two,  not  long  enough  withdrawn  to  have  transmit- 
ted their  honors,  likely  to  perpetuate  them  to  the  most  remote 
posterity — of  such  horses  as  Medoc — by  Eclipse  ;  his  dam,  Maid 
of  the  Oaks,  by  imp.  Expedition  ;  g.  dam,  old  Maid  of  tlie 
Oaks,  by  Spread  Eagle  ;  g.  g.  dam — the  dam  of  Nancy  Air — 
by  Sliark,  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Kockingham,  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Gal- 
lant, g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  True  Whig,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  imp. 
Keguhis,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  imp.  Diamond — an  animal  of 
singular  beauty,  and  one  who  was  withdrawn  from  the  turf  in 
the  prime  of  his  performances,  and  cut  off  by  an  unfortunate 
accident,  ere  he  had  half  fulfilled  his  promise  as  a  stallion. 

Mingo,  by  American  Eclipse  ;  his  dam,  Bay  Bett,  by  Thorn- 
ton's Rattler — ^he  by  Sir  Archy — g.  dam,  Cliffden  mare,  by 
impd.  Cliffden,  g.  g.  dam  by  Hall's  Spot — he  by  Hall's  imp. 
Eclipse  out  of  imp.  mare — g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Hyder  Aly,  he  by 
Lindsay's  Arabian,  dam  by  Othello,  &c., — to  my  own  mind,  for 
shape,  figure,  stride  and  action,  the  race-horse  in  the  highest 
form,  that  I  have  ever  seen,  be  the  other  who  he  may,  since  I 
have  been  in  America.  He  was  as  big  as  he  was  beautiful,  and 
as  good  as  he  was  big.  It  always  appeared  to  me  that  this 
magnificent  animal  never  had  half  a  fair  chance,  on  our  little 
one-mile-round  courses ;  which,  it  must  be  admitted,  are  as  much 
against  a  long-striding,  lengthy,  raking  galloper,  as  they  are  in 
favor  of  a  short,  active,  quick-gathering,  compact  animal.  He 
was  a  good  winner  and  good  performer,  after  all,  though  he 
was  often  most  indifferently  ridden.  I  once  saw  him  come  in 
a  winner,  in  a  four-mile  heat,  with  his  head  pulled  half  round, 
the  snaffie  drawn  wholly  through  his  mouth  to  the  left,  and  the 
rein  acting  as  a  bit. 

Clarion,  by  Monmouth  Eclipse,  dam  by  Oscar,  as  beautiful 
and  gallant  a  horse  as  a  man  need  look  upon. 

Postboy — by  Sir  Henry,  his  dam  Garland  by  Old  Duroc,  g.  d. 
Young  Damsel  by  Hamiltonian,  g.  g.  d.  Miller's  Damsel  by 
Imported  Messenger,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  PotSos,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Gim- 
crack,  &c, — a  good  horse,  and  supposed  for  a  short  time  to 
be  a  wonder,  but  clearly  overrated,  and  in  the  end  admitted  to 
be  so.  He  was  not,  by  a  long  shot,  so  good  a  horse  as  Mingo, 
of  whom  it  is  asserted  that  he  was  never  beaten,  when  in  con- 


164  tup:  horse. 

dition — an  assertion,  perhaps,  in  this  case,  true,  but  in  all  cases 
easy  to  make,  and  impossible  to  disprove — and  was  beaten  by- 
John  Bascombe,  who,  though,  also,  for  a  time,  esteemed  pro- 
digious, was  only  a  good,  and  not  an  extra  good,  race-horse. 

John  Bascombe  by  Bertrand  ;  he  by  Sir  Archy  out  of  Eliza, 
by  Bedford  ;  dam  Gray  Goose  by  Pacolet ;  he  by  imp.  Citizen 
g.  dam  Sally  Sneed  by  imp.  Buzzard,  g.  g.  dam  Jane  Hunt  by 
Gen.  Hampton's  Paragon,  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  imp.  Figure,  g.  g.  g.  g. 
(lam  Miss  Slamerkin  by  imp.  Wildair,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Delan- 
cy's  imp.  Cub  mare. 

This  is  as  good  an  American  pedigree  as  can  easily  be  pro- 
duced. He  was  a  large,  tall,  rather  leggy  and  decidedly  light-, 
bodied  horse ;  but  had  fine  action  and  was  an  easy  go'er ;  his 
points  were  for  speed,  not  for  staying  the  distance,  or  carry- 
ing weight.  He  beat  the  best  horses  of  his  year — Argyle  and 
Postboy ;  but  the  year  was  not  a  crack  one,  and  like  many 
other  horses,  who  have  been  held  cracks  of  the  minute,  he  has 
settled  down  into  his  proper  i:>lace.  It  has  been  calculated  that 
Boston  and  Fashion,  in  their  great  race,  would  have  beat  Bas- 
combe in  his  Postboy  race  by  240  yards. 

"Wagner  and  Gray  Eagle,  I  shall  not  here  refer  to  more  at 
large,  leaving  their  pedigrees  and  descriptions  to  be  noted  here- 
after, as  I  have  those  of  Eclipse  and  Henry,  Ariel  and  Flirtilla, 
Black  Maria,  and  the  other  animals  whose  performances  and 
great  races  I  have  judged  it  desirable  to  record  at  length,  from 
the  accounts  of  the  best  and  most  brilliant  contemporary  au- 
thorities. 

Peytona — by  imp.  Glencoe,  dam  Giantess  by  imp.  Leviathan, 
g.  dam  by  Sir  Archy,  g.  g.  dam  Virginia  by  Dare  Devil,  g.  g.  g. 
dam  Lady  Bolingbroke  by  imp.  Pantaloon,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Cades 
by  Wormley's  King  Herod,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Primrose  by  Dove, 
g-  g-  g-  g-  g-  g-  ^'^^^  S^cl^'^  ^y  Othello,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam 
Tasker's  Selima  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian. 

She  was  an  enormous  dark-red  chestnut  mare,  standing  full 
sixteen  hands  and  three  inches  in  height ;  she  was  deep  made 
in  her  heart-place,  and  had  powerful,  loug-let-down  hocks  ;  her 
barrel  was  so  large  that  standing  directly  in  front  of  her — P.or- 
ter  says — one  could  see  her  ribs  on  either  side.  Her  stride  was 
enormous,  said  to  cover  twenty-seven  feet. 


PEYTONA  AXD  FASniON.  165 

She  certainly  made  good  running  on  several  occasions,  and 
was  a  good  winner  ;  and  a  most  successful  animal  to  lier  owners, 
for  whom  she  had  won  upward  of  $42,000  before  her  match 
with  Fashion,  hj  which  she  netted  them  $10,000  more. 

She  had  previously  beaten  Blue  Dick  with  some  ease,  who 
was  any  thing  but  a  contemptible  adversary  ;  and  she  won,  in 
her  match  with  Fashion,  laurels  which,  like  those  of  Bascombe, 
whom  I  last  considered,  were  for  a  moment  thought  to  be  peren- 
nial, though  the}'-  were  soon  faded,  and  trailed  comparatively  in 
the  dust.  The  two  heats  were  done  in  7.39  3-4,  7.45  1-4.  "  Her 
immense  stride  and  strength,"  says  Porter,  in  one  of  his  telling 
descriptions  of  a  race,  which  no  man  who  wields  a  pen  can  de- 
scribe as  he  can,  when  he  is  in  the  vein — "  and  her  '  nice  ideal 
of  perpetual  motion '  did  the  business.  It  is  a  matter  of  doubt 
with  some,  whether  Fashion  ever  saw  the  day  when  she  could 
beat  Peytona.  Certainly  Peytona  not  only  outfooted  her  but 
outlasted  her.  In  our  opinion  condition  won  the  race.  It  is 
very  remarkable  that  after  so  fast  a  first  heat,  there  should  have 
been  so  little  falling  oif  as  five  seconds  in  the  second  heat." 

I  saw  this  race  myself,  and  I  unquestionably  was  not  one  of 
those  who  doubted  whether  Fashion  ever  saw  the  day,  &c. — so 
far  from  it  that  I  stood  my  small  stake,  very  confidently,  on  the 
return  match  at  Camden  a  fortnight  later,  when  on  that  far 
heavier  and  slower  course  Fashion — who  had  been  kept  con- 
stantly at  hard  work,  never  missing  a  gallop  since  the  day  of 
her  defeat,  while  her  conqueress,  if  one  may  coin  a  word  for 
the  occasion,  had  sufi'ered  so  severely  by  victory  that  she  had 
hardly  been  able  to  take  one — fairly  reversed  the  tables,  and 
won,  in  two  heats,  without  ever  being  put  to  her  speed,  in  7.48, 
7.59.  There  is  no  doubt.  Fashion's  rider  having,  by  order,  pulled 
her  up,  and  passed  the  winning-post  at  a  hand  gallop,  that,  if 
he  had  chosen,  he  could  have  distanced  Peytona. 

After  this  race  she  was  withdrawn  from  the  turf,  a  fine  animal, 
and  a  good  and  honest  mare,  able  to  go  the  pace  and  stay  the 
distance  ;  but,  it  must  out — "Impar  congressus  Achilli." 

Blue  Dick  by  imported  Margrave,  dam  by  Lance,  &c.,  a  blue 
roan  horse,  and  a  fair  good  one,  though  not  what  one  could  fairly 
call  a  successful  horse  or  a  good  winner — for  he  was  continually 
over-matched.     With  Kegister  of  his  own  years,  it  was  a  tougli 


166  THK  HORSE. 

matcli,  thougli  Dick  was  the  better  liorse.  With  such  an  ani- 
mal as  Pcytona,  he  was  clearly  and  indisputably  over-matched, 
and  with  Fashion,  he  had  not  a  show  for  it.  But  racers  such 
as  Fashion  and  her  immortal  rival  Boston,  are  not  met  with 
every  day  ;  and  it  might  even  be  said  of  those  who  ran  against 
them, 

Contendissc  juvat, 

or,  in  other  words,  as  a  distinguished  Statesman  is  reported  to 
have  said,  "  it  is  honor  enough  to  have  run  a  bad  second  to 
Andrew  Jackson !  "  And  so  it  would  have  been,  if  one  had  ever 
run  a  bad  second  !  One  cannot,  however,  help  thinking,  in  that 
contingency  of  Horace's  "  Non  Jovi  quicquid  simile  aut  secun- 
dum,^''— and  so  one  may  say,  without  much  fear  of  contradiction, 
at  the  present  day,  even  although  their  time  has  been  beaten 
hollow,  with  infinitely  reduced  weights,  and  over  an  immeasur- 
ably faster  track. 

Could  such  a  thing  be  possible  as  to  recall  the  days  that  are 
fled,  and  to  put  Fashion,  Boston,  Lecomte,  Lexington,  and  Pryor, 
if  you  please,  all  on  the  Union  course  together,  in  the  heyday 
of  their  blood,  and  their  most  blooming  condition,  at  any  age 
from  three  years  old  to  aged,  with  northern  weight  for  age ; 
I,  for  one,  would  be  willing  to  risk  my  shot,  in  the  first 
place,  upon  old  Whitenose,  and  the  Jersey  mare ;  and,  in  the 
next  place,  against  any  such  time,  as  that  made  over  the  New 
Orleans  courses. 

During  this  same  period,  there  were  other  horses  almost  in- 
numerable, worthy  of  mention,  among  whom  it  will  not  be  in- 
vidious to  name  Duane,  better  perliaps  than  some,  whom  I  have 
mentioned ;  Argyle,  and  the  mares.  Miss  Foote,  Trifle,  Gipsey, 
and  the  famous  Keel,  by  imported  Glencoe,  her  dam  imported 
Gallopade  by  Catton,  herself  doubly  famous  as  a  distinguished 
winner  in  her  own  person,  and  as  the  dam  of  the  cracks  ^ar 
excellence  of  the  day. 

During  the  period  I  have  here  specified,  occurred  all  the 
great  and  time-honored  races  of  America,  with  the  exception  of 
two  or  three  recent  events,  which  are  to  be  ascribed  to  a  differ- 
ent strain  of  blood,  to  a  new  school  of  breeding,  whether  for 
better  or  worse,  in  the  long  run,  perhaps  it  yet  remains  to  be 
seen,  and  of  which  I  shall  S2)eak,  in  their  place  hereafter. 


THE    FOUR    GREAT    RACES.  167 

Those  great  races,  which  I  esteem  as  worthy  of  immortality 
as  ever  was  the  match  of  Hambletonian  and  Diamond,  or  any 
other  match  race,  if  there  ever  were  any  other,  of  yet  greater 
fame,  are  those  of  American  Eclipse  and  Sir  Hemy ;  of  Ariel, 
daughter  of  Eclipse,  and  Flirtilla  ;  of  Black  Maria,  and  the  three 
mares,  known  as  the  twenty-mile  race :  of  Wagner  and  Gray 
Eagle,  at  the  Oaklands  course,  Lexington  ;  and  of  Boston  and 
Fashion,  on  the  Union  course.  Long  Island. 

Those,  as  the  old  Marshal  Trivulciano  said,  who  had  fought 
in  thirty-six  pitched  battles,  yet  had  never  seen  a  stricken  field 
until  he  fought  at  Marignano,  those  were  combats  of  giants,  all 
the  rest  were  child's  play. 

Of  those,  the  great  events,  of  the  great  turf  campaigns  of 
this  country,  I  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to  procure  accurate  de- 
scriptions by  the  pens  of  eye-witnesses,  who  will,  by  all  true 
turfmen  be  admitted,  the  most  competent  to  form  accurate 
opinions  and  draw  sound  conclusions  on  all  matters  concerning 
this  nobler  sport  than'the  Olympic  games  of  old,  and  whose  pen 
paintings  of  such  scenes  have,  long  ago,  been  pronounced  first 
and  best  by  mouths  of  wisest  censure. 

The  first  of  these,  the  great  race  of  Eclipse  and  Sir  Henry, 
the  time  of  which  was  so  long  tlie  hest,  so  long  believed  to  be 
not  only  unapproached,  but  unapproachable — together  with  the 
memoirs,  pedigrees,  j^erformances  and  description  of  the  rival 
racers,  is  from  the  pen  of  one,  whom  it  is  enough  to  name, 
"The  Old  Turfman,"  Cadwalader  C.  Golden,  Esq.,  indisputably 
the  best  authority  of  his  day,  in  this  or,  perhaps,  in  any  other 
country,  on  all  matters  connected  with  the  horse  of  pure  blood. 

From  the  same  distinguished  source  is  the  memoir  and  pedi- 
gree of  Ariel,  the  list  of  her  performances,  and  her  almost  un- 
equalled race  with  Flirtilla, 

The  twenty-mile  race  of  Black  Maria,  with  her  memoir  and 
performances,  selected  from  the  columns  of  the  Spirit  of  the 
Times,  is  understood  to  be  from  the  pen  of  the  brother  of  her 
late  distinguished  owner — that  celebrated  breeder,  j^romoter 
and  benefactor  of  the  agricultural  interests  of  this  continent,  the 
late  Mr.  Charles  Henry  Hall,  to  whose  family  I  take  this  op- 
portunit}^  of  recording  my  manifold  obligations,  and  of  return- 
ing my  most  sincere  thanks,  for  the  facilities  afforded  to  me  of 


168  TUE    HOKSE. 

books,  MS.  documents  and  pictures,  without  which  this  work 
would  have  fallen,  indeed,  far  short  of  the  present  short-comings 
of  the  author. 

The  races  of  Wagner  and  Gray  Eagle,  taken  from  the  pages 
of  the  American  Turf  Register  and  Sporting  Magazine,  are 
by  the  pen — perhaps,  are  the  chef  d'ceuvre  of  the  pen — of  my 
esteemed  friend  William  T.  Porter.  I  well  remember,  at  the 
time,  when  this  brilliant  and  graphic  narrative  and  picture  of 
events  made  its  api^earance,  the  general  admiration  with  which 
it  was  hailed.  By  the  editor  of  that  well  known  and  world-re- 
nowned journal,  "  Bell's  Life  in  London,"  it  was  immediately 
pronounced  tlie  perfection  of  turf-writing,  combining  the  abso- 
lute of  strong  horse-language  and  imagery,  with  tlie  entire  ab- 
sence of  slang.  If,  critically  speaking,  I  possess  any  judgment 
in  regard  to  style  and  the  artificial  in  composition,  I  should  pro- 
nounce the  Wagner  and  Gray  Eagle  contest,  to  be  the  best 
description  of  a  race  ever  penned  in  any  country,  or  in  any 
language.     It  seems  to  me  to  be  ne ])lus  ultra. 

The  Fashion  and  Boston  match  on  the  Union  course,  from 
the  columns  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Times,  is  from  the  same  hand 
also ;  and  the  same  clear  narrative,  quick  observation  and  ac- 
curate decision  are  discernible  in  every  line. 

This  great  event,  and  grand  struggle — in  which  the  Northern 
stables  renewed  the  laurels,  which  they  had  won  in  the  conquest 
of  the  Southern  champion  Sir  Henry  by  the  Great  Eclipse  ;  and 
doubly  renewed  them,  by  outdoing  that  hitherto  unequalled 
feat — brings  me  almost  to  the  close  of  the  period,  which  I  have 
determined  on  as  the  palmy  days  of  American  racing ;  brings 
me  completely  to  the  decadence  and  downtiill  of  the  turf  in  the 
Northern  States. 

For  what  reasons  it  fell,  it  would  not  be  easy  to  state.  Per- 
haps, this  would  not  be,  for  some  reasons,  the  place  in  which  to 
state  it,  if  it  were  so. 

It  is  sufficient  that,  at  the  same  moment,  or  nearly  so,  all  the 
most  liberal  and  energetic  patrons  of  the  turf  withdi-ew  from  it 
their  support,  closed  their  stables,  disposed  of  their  studs,  and 
ceased,  vastly  to  the  loss  of  the  agricultural  community,  and  of 
the  country  at  large,  to  breed,  to  keep,  or  to  import  blood  stock. 

At  the  same  time  an  unthinking,  senseless,  declamatory 
s]>irit  of  fa:;aticism,  den<Mincing  the  breeding  of  blood  stock  and 


LEXINGTON,    LECOMTE    AND    PRYOR.  169 

racing,  as  tlie  worst,  most  dangerous,  and  most  destructive  sort 
of  gambling,  ran  through  the  commnuity,  and  took  possession 
even  of  the  legislatures. 

Racing  courses  were  put  down  and  proscribed ;  while  ti-ot- 
ting  courses,  at  which — on  the  most  moderate  computation — the 
oj)portunities  for  fraud  are  ten  times  greater,  and  fraud  is  fifty 
times  more  generally  practised,  than  on  any  race-course,  ob- 
tained a  fixed  position  and  a  stand. 

Gentlemen,  and  persons  of  means  and  education  generally, 
have  totally  withdrawn,  in  the  JSTorthern  States,  from  the  habit  of 
breeding,  keeping,  riding  or  driving  fast  horses,  or  patronizing 
races  at  all,  except  as  a  mere  spectacle  to  be  visited  as  a  theatre, 
or  a  field  diiy ;  and  every  thing  connected  with  the  l^orthern 
turf  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  professional  persons,  of  greater 
or  less  respectability — some  doubtless  of  the  highest,  some  of 
the  most  questionable — who  practise  it,  of  course,  professionally 
as  a  matter  of  emolument. 

A  fine  new  race-course  has  lately  been  established  on  Long 
Island,  and  a  new  jockey  club  has  been  set  on  foot,  but  it  does 
not  appear,  hitherto,  that  the  right  persons  have  taken  hold  of 
it;  although  it  is  said  that  a  reaction  is  even  now  in  progress,  and 
that  there  are  hopes  that  we  may  once  more  see  Northern  sta- 
bles in  operation,  strings  of  thoroughbreds  in  their  cosy  body 
clotlies,  with  natty  lads  on  their  backs,  and  in  a  word,  Long  Isl- 
and, itself  again. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  South  has  not  only  been  holding  her 
own,  but  surpassing  the  'North,  and  herself  again,  in  the  point  of 
time,  astonishing  the  world,  and  now  challenging  Mother  Eng- 
land's Derby  and  Leger  winners,  on  their  own  turf. 

First  we  had  Henry  Perrit's— an  undeniable  runner  at  short 
distances — unequalled,  mile  heats.  Next  Lecomte  beating  Lex- 
ington many  seconds  under  the  time  of  Fashion's  best  race — 
then  Lexington  beating  Lecomte's  best  time,  by  almost  as  many 
seconds  more — and  lastly  beating  Lecomte  himself,  in  worse  time 
than  he  had  himself  made  before,  because  liis  adversary  could 
not  drive  him  to  make  better. 

Then  in  conclusion,  we  iiave  Br.  Dick  making  the  best  time 
ever  yet  accomplished,  at  three-mile  heats  ;  and  then  we  have 
the  two,  Lexington  and  Pry  or,  with  a  semi-dark  mare  Prioress, 


170  THE   HOKSE. 

about  whom  little  is  certainly  known  beyond  her  own  stables, 
going  abroad — hopeless  of  finding  matches  at  home — to  take  a 
rise  out  of  the  English  cracks,  calculating  of  course  on  the  im- 
mense allowances,  which  will  not  fall  short,  under  some  contin- 
gencies, of  14  pounds  advantage  given  to  foreign  bred  and 
untried  horses. 

Many  persons  believe  now,  of  these  horses,  as  they  did  of 
Peytona,  tliat  nothing  that  ever  was  in  the  North  ever  saw  the 
day  when  it  could  beat  these  horses  ;  and  that  nothing  in  Eng- 
land ever  will  see  that  day. 

I  am  not  one  of  those  persons. 

The  end  is  not  yet,  and  fast  time  or  slow  time,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve altogether  in  light  weights  and  fast  courses  ;  but,  I  do  be- 
lieve, all  things  fully  weighed  and  considered,  with  no  preju- 
dice or  favor  for  JSTorthern  or  Southern  stables,  that  Boston  ia 
out  and  out  the  best  race-horse  of  any  age,  sex  or  condition,  that 
has  yet  run  upon  American  plates,  and  that  Fashion  is  the  best 
mare. 

That  the  American  horses  will  win  in  England,  at  the  extra- 
ordinary advantages,  which  they  will  receive,  I  think  probable  ; 
and  not  much  to  brag  of,  if  they  do.  One  may  handicap 
Eclipse  so  that  a  jackass  will  beat  him,  and  28  lbs.  is  a  difference^ 
with  a  vengeance,  on  a  horse's  back. 

The  clever  accounts  subjoined  of  the  most  recent  races,  are 
from  the  ITew  Orleans  Picayune,  but  quoted  from  the  Spirit  of 
the  Times. 


MEMOIR 

OF      SIR      ARCHY. 

This  justly  celebrated  horse,  whose  portrait,  from  a  painting, 
which  we  have  been  assured  is  a  striking  likeness,  ornaments 
the  present  memoir,  was  foaled  in  the  spring  of  1805,  on  James 
river,  in  Virginia,  and  was  bred  by  Col.  Archibald  Randolph 
and  Col.  John  Tayloe,  as  their  joint  property. 

Sir  Archy  is  of  rich  bay  color,  having  no  white  about  him 
except  on  his  right  hind  foot.  He  is  a  horse  of  commanding 
size,  fully  sixteen  hands  high,  with  great  power  and  substance. 
He  is  eminently  superior  in  all  those  points  indispensable  to  the 
turf  horse  and  mainly  contributory  to  strength  and  action. 
His  shoulder,  the  most  material  part  of  the  horse,  is  strikingly 
distinguished,  being  very  deep,  fairly  mounting  up  to  the  top 
of  the  withers,  and  obliquely  inclined  to  the  hips.  His  girth  is 
full  and  deep,  back  short  and  strong,  thighs  and  arms  long  and 
muscular,  his  bone  good.  His  front  appearance  is  fine  and 
commanding — his  head  and  neck  are  well  formed,  the  latter 
rising  well  out  of  his  withers.  Take  Sir  Archy  upon  the  whole, 
and  he  has  more  size,  power  and  substance  than  we  often  see 
combined  in  the  full  bred  horse.  As  a  racer  he  was  considered 
very  superior.  He  did  not  run  many  races,  but  beat  all  the 
best  horses  of  his  day  ;  among  them  were  Wrangler,  Tom 
Tough,  Palafox,  Minerva,  Ratray,  Gallatin,  and  also  Gen.  Car- 
ney's celebrated  racer  Blank,  by  Citizen.  "When  Sir  Archy 
quitted  the  turf,  he  had  no  equal  in  this  country,  as  will  be  seen 
in  the  following  extract  of  a  letter  from  Col.  W.  R.  Johnson — 
"  I  have  only  to  say  that,  in  my  opinion.  Sir  Archy  is  the  best 


172  THK    HORSE. 

horse  1  ever  saw,  and  I  well  know  that  I  never  had  any  thing 
to  do  with  one  that  was  at  all  his  equal ;  and  this  I  will  hack  , 
for,  if  any  horse  in  the  world  will  run  against  him  at  any  half- 
way ground,  four-mile  heats,  according  to  the  rules  of  racing, 
you  may  consider  me  8^000  with  you  on  him.  He  was  in  good 
condition  this  fall — 1809 — and  has  not  run  with  any  horse  that 
could  put  him  to  half  speed  towards  the  end  of  the  race. 

"  Yours,  W.  R.  Johnson." 

Sir  Archy  was  got  by  the  imported  horse  Diomed,  his  dam 
the  imported  mare  Castianira — she  was  got  by  Eockingham, 
out  of  Tabitha,  by  Trentham  ;  her  dam — ^Tabitha's — out  of  the 
dam  of  Pegasus.      Vide  Genealogical  Tables,  IS'os.  I.  and  II. 

Eockingham,  the  best  son  of  Highflyer,  and  he  the  best  son 
of  old  King  Herod.  The  dam  of  Eockingham,  Purity,  by 
Matchem,  out  of  the  famous  old  Squirt  mare. 

Trentham,  a  hox-se  of  great  power  and  celebrity  of  his  day, 
was  by  Sweepstakes,  out  of  a  South  mare. 

Diomed — the  sire  of  Sir  Arch}'- — was  got  by  Florizel,  one  of 
the  best  sons  of  old  King  Herod ;  his  dam — Diomed's — by  Spec- 
tator ;  his  grandam  by  Blank,  Flying  Childers,  Miss  Belvoir, 
by  Gray  Grantham,  Paget  Turk,  Betty  Percival,  Leeds  Arabian. 

Diomed  was  one  of  the  best  racers  on  the  English  turf ;  and 
was  unquestionably  the  finest  formed  horse  ever  imported  into 
this  country  ;  and  as  a  foal  getter,  he  has  had  no  equal  except 
in  his  son.  Diomed  had  the  rare  faculty  of  getting  colts  of  size 
and  form  from  almost  all  the  mares  that  he  covered,  and  he 
mare  generally  got  racers  than  any  other  stallion  that  had  pre- 
ceded him ;  and  as  to  the  celebrity  of  his  colts,  as  first-rate 
racers,  they  have  far  eclipsed  those  of  any  other  horse's  get,  ex- 
cept those  of  Sir  Archy.  What  stallion,  then,  so  worthy  to  be 
the  sire  of  Sir  Archy  as  Diomed  ?  Yet  a  report  has  been  in 
circulation  a  dozen  years  or  more,  calculated  to  rob  Diomed  of 
this  honor,  and  to  confer  it  on  another  stallion  called  Gabriel, 
sire  of  Postboy,  Harlequin  and  Oscar. 

This  report  first  originated  among  grooms,  who,  of  all 
others,  are  best  calculated  to  give  currency  to  reports  without 
foundation.     Col.  Tayloe,  who  jointly  with  Col.  Eandolph,  bred 


GET   OF    Sm   AKCHY.  173 

Sir  Archj,  confidently  avers  the  fact  that  Diomed  was  the  sire 
of  Sir  Archj.'^ 

In  the  spring  of  1804,  the  season  that  Sir  Ai-chy  was  got, 
old  Diomed  stood  at  Col.  Selden's  below  Kichmond.  Mr.  Sel- 
den,  his  son,  who  is  now  living,  saw  Castianira — the  dam  of 
Archy — covered  on  the  same  day  by  Diomed,  that  he  got 
Wrangler.  This  declaration  of  Mr.  Selden  puts  the  question 
beyond  all  doubt.  But  if  we  were  to  reason  on  other  circum- 
stances, I  should  reject  Gabriel  as  the  sire  of  Sir  Archy.  Ga- 
briel's stock  were  not  large,  but  only  common  size  ;  hence  the 
improbability  of  his  being  the  sire  of  so  large  a  horse  as  Sir 
Archy.  Whereas,  Diomed's  stock  were  generally  of  good  size, 
and  Sir  Ai-chy  bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  Kockingham 
and  Herod  stock  ;  of  which  blood  he  possessed  a  large  share, 
not  only  through  Rockingham,  but  also  through  Florizel,  the 
sire  of  Diomed. 

Sir  Archy  may  justly  be  allowed  to  be  one  of  the  best  bred 
horses  this  country  or  England  has  ever  produced.  He  was  not 
only  a  distinguished  racer,  but,  as  a  stallion,  he  stands  upon 
higher  ground  than  any  other  horse  that  has  covered  in  Amer- 
ica, and  may  rank  with  the  best  stallions  in  England. 

He  has  done  as  much  for  the  turf  stock  of  this  country  as 
the  Godolphin  Arabian,  King  Herod,  or  Highflyer,  for  that  of 
Great  Britain.  Most  of  the  best  stock  at  present  in  this  coun- 
try are  either  immediately  from  the  loins  of  Sir  Archy,  or  have 
been  produced  from  his  sons  and  daughters.  Sir  Archy  covered 
at  $50  the  season  until  within  a  few  years,  when  his  price  was 
raised  to  $75  the  season,  and  $100  insurance  ;  at  which  price 
he  now  covers  in  I^orth  Carolina. 

A  list  of  his  most  distinguished  get  is  here  added,  but  it  is 
far  from  being  complete. 


Timoleon, 

Roanoke,             ^ 

Reality, 

Janus,                   1  Bred  by  tlie  Hon. 
Mark  Antony,     '  John  Randolph. 
Rinaldo, 

Vanity, 

Lawrence, 

Director, 

Stockholder, 

Virginian, 

Bertrand, 

Carolinian, 

Pacific, 

*  Vide  his  letter  to  J.  S.  Skinner,  Esq.,  in  Am.  Farmer,  vol.  9,  p.  143. 


174 


THE   HORSE. 


Katler,  Cherokee, 

Childers,  Arab, 

Sumter,  Coquette, 

Flirtilla,  Jeannett, 

Sir  Charles,  Tariff,  J 

Janette,  Gohanna, 

Napoleon,  Phillis, 

Full  sister  to  Napoleon,        Creeping  Kate, 

Keap  Hook,  Robert  Adair, 

Contention,  Lady  Burton, 

Lady  Lightfoot,  Fantail, 

Sir  Henry  Giles  Scroggins, 

Sir  William,  Sir  Arthur, 

Muckle  John,  Pirate, 

Marion,  Lady  La  Grange, 

Tecumseh,  Rarity, 

Saxe  Weimar,  Kosciusko, 

Kate  Kearney, 

And  many  others  not  recollected. 

— American  Turf  Register,  vol.  i.,  1829. 


Bred  by  Mr.  Brodnax. 


Yours,  &c.. 


MEMOIR 


DIOMED,   SIRE   OF  SIR    ARCHY    AND    DUROC— AN.D   GRAY 
DIOMED,    SIRE   OF   DUROC'S   DAM,    AMANDA. 


Washtsgton,  October,  1829. 

As  connected  with,  tlie  memoir  of  Dm-oc,  a  notice  of  Diomed, 
his  sire,  and  of  Gray  Diomed,  the  sire  of  his  dam,  Amanda, 
may  not  be  nnacceptable. 

Diomed,  by  Florizel ;  dam  by  Spectator — see  General  Stud 
Book,  page  193 — was  a  very  distinguished  racer  in  England, 
the  first  winner  of  the  Derby  ;  and  as  a  stallion,  althongb 
placed  in  competition  with  Highflyer,  Sir  Peter  Teazel,  Rock- 
ingham, Pegasus,  &c.,  was  no  less  celebrated.  His  progeny  in 
England  were. 

Tortoise,      .        .        .      foaled  1786 

David, 1790 

Hermione,  .         .        .         .  1780 

Fanny, 1790 

B.  c.  out  of  Carina,  .  .  1790 
Hackabuk,  ....  1791 
F.  out  of  Active,  .  .  1790 
Ch.  c.  out  of  Sir  Peter's  sister,  1794 
Whiskey,  ....  1789 
Little  Pickle,  .  .  .  1790 
Champion,       .        .        .  )  1790 

Hero,  ....[■  1792 

Sister  to  Champion  and  Hero,  )  1793 
Michael,  ....    1790 

0.  out  of  Crane,  .  .  .  1793 
B.  f.  out  of  Danae,  .        .     1788 

Ch.  f.  Desdemona  (see  General 

Stud  Book,  page  274),     .  1788 

Rosabella's  dam,  .  .  .  1793 
Speculator,  .        .        .         1794 

Dam  of  Whiskey  (See  General 

Stud  Book,  page  275),  .     1785 


Gray  Diomed,  one  of  the  most " 
celebrated  horses  that  ever 
ran  in  England  ;  afterwards 
ran  with  such  success  in  Rus- 
sia, that  several  of  his  stock 
■were  sent  for  from  that  em- 
pire. 

Ch.  f.  sister  to  Gray  Diomed, 

Ch.  c.  brother  to  Gray  Dio- 
med,    .... 

Robin  Grey, 

Cedar,      .... 

Greyhound, 

Poplar,     .         . 

B.  c.  out  of  Dax, 

Monkey, 

Montezuma, 

Quetlavaca, 

Guatimozin, 

Ch.  f.  sister  to  do. 


1788 

1789 
1790 
1793 
1794 
1795 
1791 


foaled  1786 

.  1788 

.   ;  1788 

[  1790 

Ch.  c.  out  of  Grenadier's  dam,  1791 
Ch.  f.  out  of  Isabel,  .    .    1793 


176 

THJ-;   HORSE. 

0.  out  of  Fleacatcher, 

foaled  1  1790 

Brother  to  Amazon,        foaled 

1789 

Sister  to            do. 

1  1787 

Amazon,      .... 

^  1792 

Sir  Charles,  brother  to  do. 

■  1790 

Sister  to  do.     . 

1  1793 

"Wrangler,          do. 

1791 

B.  f.  out  of  Cheesecake,      . 

1791 

Brotlier  to  Butterfly,  . 

1794 

Ch.  f.  out  of  Mrs.  Siddons, 

1792 

Giantess, 

)  1790 

Brother  to  Venture,    . 

1794 

Young  Giantess, 

y  1790 

Ch.  f.  out  of  Mopsqueeser, 

1790 

Pamela,  . 

. 

)  1791 

Young  Koisette, 

1789 

Tom,  .... 

1790 

B.  0.  out  of  Eosaletta, 

1790 

Anthony, 

)  1789 
(  1790 

Aramanthe, 

1788 

Sister  to  do. 

Valiant,  .... 

1  1785 

Glaucus, 

. 

)  1786 

Victor,        .... 

>  1786 

Lais, 

}  1787 

Brother  to  do. 

)  1787 

Brother  to  do. 

, 

)  1789 

B.  f.  out  of  Temperance,     . 

1788 

Foreigner,  . 

)  1790 

Laurentina,     .... 

1794 

Sister  to  do.  (Snug's  dam) 

■  1793 

B.  c.  out  of  Tulip, 

1794 

At  twenty-two  years  old,  Diomed  was  imported  into  Vir- 
ginia by  tlie  late  Col.  John  Hoonies,  of  the  Bowling  Green. 
The  most  distinguished  of  his  get  in  Virginia — I  write  from 
memory,  and  if  wrong,  ask  for  correction — were, 

Sir  Archy,  dam  by  Rockingham,  bred  by  Col.  Tayloe,  after- 
wards owned  and  run  by  W.  R.  Johnson,  Esq.*       foaled  1805 

Florizel,  dam  by  Shark — in  1805,  beat  Peace  Maker, 
the  celebrated  match,  four-mile  heats — Major  Ball, 

Potomac,  ran  and  won  at  Petersburg,  two  miles  in 
3m.  43s.  ;  the  quickest  race  to  this  day  in  America — Mr, 
Wilkes, 

Peace  Maker,  bred  by  Col.  Hoomes,  afterwards  owned 
and  run  by  Col.  Tayloe, 


Top  Gallant,  dam  by  Shark— Mr.   Clayton;    after 
wards  owned  and  run  by  Col.  Tayloe,     . 

liamlintonian,  dam  by  Shark — Mr.  Hamlin  ;  after 
wards  owned  and  run  by  Col.  Tayloe, 

Yingtun,  dam  by  Clockfast— sold  in  1803  for  $2760- 
Gen.  Wade  Hampton  and  Gov.  Ed.  Lloyd,     . 

Stump  the  Dealer,  dam  by  Clockfast— W.  R.  Johnson 
and  Ralph  Wormeley,  Esq., 

Duroc,  dam  by  Gray  Diomed — Wade  Mosby,  Esq. 
W.  M.  and  Mr.  Badger, 


1802 


1801 


1801 


1801 


1801 


1801 


1801 


1806 


*  It  has  been  stated,  but  I  believe  on  no  good  ground,  that  the  imported  Gabriel 
by  Dorimant— a  very  distinguished  horse  and  sire  of  those  excellent  horses,  Post 
Bo-.  Oscar  and  Harlequin — was  also  sire  of  Sir  Archy. 


GET    OF    DIOMED.  177 

Hampton,  dam  by  Gray  Diomed — Gen.  Hampton — 

Mr.  J.  Y.  Bond, foaled  1806 

Cora.  Truxton, — Gen.  Andrew  Jackson,         .         .  1806 

The  dam  of  Henry, 1806 

And  the  dam  of  Eliza  White,         ....  1806 

Gray  Diomed,  sire  of  Amanda,  was  by  the  imported  Med- 
ley ;  his  dam  by  Sloe  ;  grandam  by  Yampire,  &c. — was  foaled, 
May,  1786.  Of  his  races  previons  to  1793,  when  purchased  of 
Mr.  Kichard  Brooke  by  Col.  Tayloe  for  $800, 1  am  not  informed. 
In  August,  1793,  he  won  a  match,  4  miles,  beating  Mr.  Page's 
famous  Isabella  at  the  Bowling  Green.  In  October,  he  won 
there  a  jockey  club  purse.  In  JSTovember  he  won  a  jockey 
club  purse  at  Petersburg.  In  September,  1794,  he  won  the 
jockey  club  purse,  four-mile  heats,  at  the  Bowling  Green.  In 
October  he  won  the  jockey  club  purse,  four-mile  heats,  at 
Chestertown,  Md.,  beating  Gen.  Ridgely's  famous  Cincinnatus, 
then  four  years  old.  During  the  same  month  he  won  the  jockey 
club  purse  at  Annapolis,  beating  Cincinnatus,  the  equally  famed 
Yirginia  Nell,  Nantoaki,  and  others — on  which  occasion  there 
were  two  striking  evidences  of  bottom ;  through  mistake,  after 
winning  the  heat,  another  mile  was  run,  terminating  in  a  dead 
heat,  between  him  and  Cincinnatus.  In  the  next  heat,  soon 
after  starting,  in  endeavoring  to  pass  on  the  inner  side,  he  cut 
within  the  pole,  had  to  return,  and  barely  saved  his  distance ; 
running  the  whole  heat  at  his  utmost  speed ;  yet  was  winner 
of  the  race.  In  December,  when  winning  at  Alexandria,  he 
fell  over  a  dog,  by  which  accident  he  lost  the  race.  He  started 
but  once  more,  for  a  sweepstakes  at  Leeds,  against  Mr.  Wash- 
ington's horse,  and  Mr.  Butler's  mare,  but  being  lame  he  lost, 
beating  the  latter.  Sold  by  Col.  Tayloe  in  1798  to  Mr.  J.  Blick 
for  $2200. —American  Txtrf  Register^  vol.  i.,  1829. 


Vol.  I.— 12 


I^IEMOIR 

OF    AMERICAN    ECLIPSE. 

The  portrait,  accompanying  this  memoir,  of  the  celebrated 
racer,  "  American  Eclipse,"  was  engraved  by  Messrs.  Capewell 
and  Kimmell,  of  this  city,  from  the  original  painting,  made  by 
Mr.  Fisher,  of  Boston,  for  the  late  Charles  Henry  Hall,  Esq.,  of 
New  York,  and  is  acknowledged  by  all  good  judges  to  be  an 
excellent  likeness.  This  horse  is  now  fifteen  years  old,  chestnut, 
with  a  star,  and  the  near  hind  foot  white ;  is  fifteen  hands  one 
inch  high,  and  possesses  a  large  share  of  bone  and  muscle. 
Eclipse  was  foaled  at  Dosoris,  Queens  county,  Long  Island,  on 
the  25th  May,  1814,  and  was  reared  by  the  late  Gen.  Nathaniel 
Coles,  the  breeder,  in  whose  possession  he  remained  till  the 
loth  March,  1819,  when  he  became  the  property  of  Mr,  Yan 
Ranst.  His  sire  was  Duroc  ;  his  dam.  Miller's  Damsel,  by- 
Messenger  ;  his  grandam  the  English  PotSos  mare,  imported  at 
three  years  old,  in  1795,  by  William  Constable,  Esq.,  of  New 
York.  Pot8os  sired  by  the  celebrated  English  Eclipse  ;  his 
great  grandam  by  Gimcrack  ;  Gimcrack  by  Cripple  ;  and  Crip- 
ple by  the  Godolphin  Arabian. 

From  a  memorandum  in  the  handwriting  of  Gen.  Nathaniel 
Coles,  the  breeder,  it  appears  that  he  was  reared  in  the  follow- 
ing manner.  The  colt  was  weaned  on  the  lOtli  of  November. 
At  the  commencement  of  winter,  fed  with  four  quarts  of  shorts, 
which  was  increased  during  the  winter  to  eight  quarts  per  day ; 
hay,  clover  dampened. 

Second  year,  in  the  spring,  turned  to  grass  with  no  grain. 
November  10th,  put  up — ^fed  with  eight  quarts  shorts  per  day  ; 
during  winter,  shorts  increased  to  ten  quarts — hay,  the  same  as 
first  winter. 

Third  year,  turned  to  grass,  with  four  quarts  shorts  per  day. 
September  1st,  commenced  breaking — feed,  eight  quarts  oats — 


A3IEEICAN    ECLIPSE.  179 

through  the  winter,  hay  as  formerly — grain,  ground  corn  and 
(Tats,  equal  to  eleven  quarts  oats.  March  Ist,  commenced  and 
trained  for  nine  weeks,  then  gave  a  trial  of  two  miles,  and  found 
the  colt  very  superior. 

Fourth  year,  in  summer  turned  to  grass — fed  with  ground 
oats  and  corn,  equal  to  nine  quarts  oats — in  winter,  hay  as  for- 
merly, with  nine  quarts  oats  per  day,  till  the  first  March,  1818, 
when  commenced  training ;  feed,  oats  and  cracked  corn,  equal 
to  twelve  quarts  oats. 

Fifth  year,  late  in  May,  1818,  ran  the  three-mile  heats  at 
]N"ewmarket,  on  Long  Island,  and  won  the  first  day's  purse  with 
ease,  beating  Blaek-eyed  Susan,  and  Sea  Gull,  then  called  the 
best  three-mile  horse  of  the  day ;  turned  to  grass  first  June, 
with  about  six  quarts  of  oats  a  day  ;  in  winter,  fed  with  hay  as 
before,  with  ground  corn  and  oats.  March  15th,  1819,  sold 
Eclipse  to  Mr.  Yan  Eanst. 

At  five  months  old,  while  a  suckling,  he  gave  his  owner  such 
a  sample  of  stride,  strength  and  speed,  that  he  was  at  that  time 
named  "  American  Eclipse." 

While  a  colt  he  was  not  confined,  but  during  the  winter 
season  turned  out  every  fair  day.  He  was  first  shod  in  the 
spring,  when  three  years  old. 

In  June,  1819,  he  won  the  Jockey  Club's  purse  of  $500,  run- 
ning the  four-mile  heats  over  the  Bath  course,  beating  Mr. 
Purdy's  horse.  Little  John,  by  the  Virginia  Potomac;  Mr. 
Bond's  horse  Eclipse,  by  First  Consul ;  and  Mr.  Potter's  horse, 
James  Fitz  James,  by  Sir  Archy. 

In  October,  1819,  he  again  ran  the  four-mile  heats  at  Bath, 
winning  the  purse  of  $500,  beating  Mr.  Purdy's  horse,  Little 
John  ;  Mr.  Schenck's  horse.  Fearnought ;  and  Mr.  Bond's  colt ; 
the  two  latter  beiug  withdrawn  the  second  heat.  The  Bath 
course  measured  fifteen  links  over  a  mile  ;  the  first  heat  of  this 
race  was  run  in  eight  minutes  and  thirteen  seconds,  and  the 
second  in  eight  minutes  and  eight  seconds. 

In  the  spring  of  1820,  Eclipse  stood  to  mares  on  Long  Island, 
at  $12  50  the  season.     In  the  spring  of  1821,  he  again  covered  ~ 
as  a  common  stallion,  at  $12  50  the  season,  and  covered  eighty- 
seven  mares  ;  nor  was  it  contemplated  to  bring  him  again  upon 
the  turf;  but  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  :N"ew  York  having 


180  THE    HOKSE. 

new  modelled  the  law  respecting  racing,  and  a  society  being 
re-organized  sj^ecially  for  the  improvement  of  our  breed  oi 
horses,  Mr.  Van  Ranst  was  induced  again  to  put  Eclipse  in 
training  for  the  four-mile  heats  to  be  run  over  the  New  Union 
course,  eight-miles  from  Brooklyn,  and  near  the  Jamaica  Turn- 
pike, in  October  of  that  year. 

From  an  opinion,  long  entertained  by  sportsmen,  that  cover- 
ing renders  a  horse  unfit  for  the  race,  the  friends  of  Eclipse 
questioned  the  policy  of  again  running  him  ;  but  the  event 
proved  that,  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  the  opinion  was  un- 
founded. 

The  races  commenced  the  15th  of  October,  1821,  when  four 
horses  started  for  the  purse  of  $500,  to  run  the  four-mile  heats  ; 
viz.  American  Eclipse  ;  Mr.  Sleeper's  brown  mare.  Lady  Liglit- 
foot,  by  Sir  Archy  ;  Mr.  Schenck's  horse.  Flag  of  Truce,  by 
Sir  Solomon  ;  and  Mr.  Schomp's  horse,  Heart  of  Oak.  The  two 
last  named  horses  were  drawn  after  the  first  heat,  and  Lady 
Lightfoot  was  distanced  in  the  second,  being  nine  years  old — 
she  had  run  upwards  of  twenty  races — some  very  severe  ones  ; 
and  was  out  of  order. 

The  bets  at  starting  were  two  to  one  on  the  mare.  The 
mare  led  until  the  last  quarter  of  the  first  heat,  when  Eclipse 
passed  her,  coming  in  two  lengths  ahead.  In  the  second  heat 
Eclipse  passed  her  in  running  the  third  mile,  and  from  that  time 
left  her  alone.  The  time  was,  first  heat,  eight  minutes  and 
four  seconds  ;  the  second  heat,  eight  minutes  and  two  seconds, 
and  the  course  measured  thirty  feet  over  a  mile. 

In  the  following  week,  Eclipse  was  exhibited  at  the  annual 
exhibition  of  the  New  York  county  Agricultural  Society,  and 
received  the  society's  first  premium,  $50,  for  the  best  stallion. 

In  May,  1822,  Eclipse  won  the  purse  of  $700  for  four-mile 
heats  at  tlie  Union  course,  beating  Mr.  Badger's  five-year-old 
horse.  Sir  Walter,  by  Hickory.  A  bet  of  considerable  amount 
was  made  by  the  owners  of  the  two  horses  on  the  first  heat, 
which,  with  the  second  heat,  was  won  by  Eclipse.  Time,  first 
heat,  seven  minutes  and  fifty-four  seconds  ;  second  heat,  eight 
minutes. 

In  October,  1822,  he  again  ran  the  four-mile  heats  at  the 
Union  course,  for  the  $1000  purse,  which  he  won,  beating  a 


AMEKICAN    ECLIPSE.  181 

second  time,  Mr.  Badger's  liorse,  Sir  Walter  ;  Mr.  Sleeper's  bay- 
mare,  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  by  Sir  Archy  ;  and  Mr.  Jack- 
sou's  mare.  Slow  and  Easy,  by  Duroc.  The  first  heat  was  run 
in  seven  minutes  and  fifty-eight  seconds,  when  the  two  mares 
were  withdrawn,  and  Sir  Walter  stopping  short  in  the  second 
heat,  Eclipse  came  in  at  his  leisure.  A  day  or  two  previous  to 
this  race,  a  challenge  appeared  in  the  New  York  papers  by 
Mr.  James  J.  Harrison,  of  Brunswick,  Ya.,  in  which  he  offered 
to  "  run  Sir  Charles  against  the  American  Eclipse,  over  the 
Washington  course,  four-mile  heats,  agreeably  to  the  rules  of  the 
course,  for  five  or  ten  thousand  dollars."  This  challenge  was 
promptly  accepted  bj  Mr.  Yan  Ranst,  who,  as  two  sums  were 
named  by  Mr.  Harrison,  chose  the  greatest,  that  the  object  of 
the  contest  might  correspond  with  the  fame  of  the  horses. 

The  forfeit  money,  $5000  each,  having  been  deposited,  the 
time  for  running  was  fixed  for  the  20th  of  November.  At  the 
hour  of  starting,  both  horses  were  brought  out  and  the  riders 
mounted ;  but  instead  of  running  agreeably  to  the  challenge, 
Mr.  Harrison  gave  notice  that  as  his  horse  had  met  with  an 
accident,  he  would  pay  the  forfeit.  He  at  the  same  time  pro- 
posed to  run  a  single  four-mile  heat,  for  $1500  each,  which  being 
instantly  agreed  to,  the  horses  started.  Eclipse  taking  the  lead. 
On  tlie  last  round.  Sir  Charles  broke  down.  The  two  first 
rounds  were  run  in  one  minute  and  fifty-five  seconds  each,  and 
the  heat  in  eight  minutes  and  four  seconds.  In  this  race.  Sir 
Charles  carried  120  lbs..  Eclipse  126  lbs. 

In  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  William  R.  Johnson,  Esq., 
of  Petersburg,  Ya.,  offered  to  produce  a  horse,  on  the  last  Tues- 
day in  May,  1823,  to  run  the  four-mile  heats  against  Eclipse, 
over  the  Union  course  on  Long  Island,  agreeably  to  the  rules 
of  that  course,  for  $20,000  a  side,  $3000  forfeit. 

This  challenge  was  immediately  accepted  by  Mr.  John  C. 
Stephens  ;  in  consequence  of  which  Col.  Johnson,  on  the  day 
mentioned,  appeared  on  the  race  mth  a  four-year-old  chestnut 
colt,  called  Henry — John  Richards,  intended  for  the  race,  hav- 
ing been  lamed — about  fifteen  hands  one  inch  high,  which  had 
been  bred  by  Mr.  Lemuel  Long,  near  Halifax,  North  Carolina. 
Henry  was  sired  by  Sir  Archy  ;  his  dam  by  Diomed  ;  her  dam 
by  Bell  Air  ;  hers  by  Pilgrim  ;  hers  by  Yaliant ;  hers  by  Janus  ; 


182  THE    IIOKSE. 

hers  by  Jolly  Roger — imported  horses.  About  half  past  12 
o'clock,  both  horses  started.  Eclipse  was  rode  by  "Wm.  Crafts ; 
Henry  by  a  young  lad.  Henry  took  the  lead,  and  maintained 
it  through  the  heat.  They  came  in  together,  Henry  beating 
Eclipse  by  half  a  length,  but  apparently  "  hard  in  hand." — Bets 
on  the  second  heat,  three  to  one  on  Henry. 

During  the  second  heat,  Eclipse  was  rode  by  Mr.  Purdy. 
Henry  again  took  the  lead,  and  kept  it  until  the  last  quarter  of 
the  third  mile,  when  Pardy  made  a  push,  and  Eclipse  passed 
his  rival  at  the  commencement  of  the  fourth  mile.  An  attempt 
was  made  by  Henry's  rider  to  recover  his  ground,  but  in  vain. 
He  was  beat  by  about  thirty  feet.  Henry  reined  in  on  passing 
the  distance  pole,  the  loss  of  the  heat  being  evident. 

AVhen  the  horses  were  brought  out  for  the  third  heat,  the 
great  trainer,  Arthur  Taylor,  mounted  Henry,  instead  of  the  boy 
who  rode  him  the  two  first  heats.  On  starting,  Eclipse  took 
the  lead,  which  he  kept  to  the  end  of  the  race,  coming  in  about 
three  lengths  ahead  of  Henry,  both  at  their  utmost  speed — 
Henry  in  this  heat  having  been  reserved  for  the  last  quarter. 

The  time  of  running  the  three  heats,  as  given  by  the  judges, 
Gen.  Ridgely,  of  Baltimore  ;  Captain  Cox,  of  Washington  ;  and 
John  Allen,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  was  as  follows  : 

First  heat,  7  min.  37  see. — second  heat,  7  min.  49  sec. — 
third  heat,  8  min.  24  sec. 

Twelve  miles  in  23  minutes  and  50  seconds. 

The  weights  carried  were — Eclipse,  126  lbs. — Henry,  108. 
Weights,  according  to  racing  calculations,  are  so  nicely  regu- 
lated to  correspond  with  age,  that  no  advantage  was  given  to 
Henry,  as  has  been  said  ;  on  the  contrary,  according  to  the 
long  established  usage  of  weights  on  the  Southern  courses,  now 
introduced  at  Kew  York,  Eclipse  had  an  advantage  of  8  lbs. — 
more  than  a  distance — 7  lbs.  =  240  yards. 

On  the  day  previous  to  the  race,  a  number  of  gentlemen 
visited  the  course  with  a  surveyor,  and  finding  it  thirty  feet 
over  a  mile,  reduced  it  as  nearly  to  a  mile  as  could  conveniently 
be  done,  leaving  it  still  eighteen  inches  over.  It  is  said,  how- 
ever, from  the  difference  in  the  nature  of  the  ground,  to  be  four 
or  five  seconds  quicker  than  the  Tree  Hill  course. 

Immediately  after  the  race,  Col.  AV.  R.  Johnson  challenged 


AMERICAN    ECLIPSE.  183 

J.  C.  Stevens,  Esq.,  and  the  friends  of  Eclipse,  to  run  Henry 
against  Eclipse  the  ensuing  fall,  over  the  Washington  course, 
for  any  sum  from  twenty  to  fifty  thousand  dollars — forfeit,  ten 
thousand  dollars.  The  challenge  was  declined,  and  the  resolu- 
tion then  announced  has  been  adhered  to,  "  never,  on  any  con- 
sideration, to  risk  Ihe  life  and  reputation  of  the  noble  animal, 
whose  generous  and  almost  incredible  exertions,  have  gained 
for  the  north  so  signal  a  victory,  and  for  himself,  such  well- 
earned  and  never-fading  renown." 

Eclipse  was  accordingly  withdrawn  from  the  turf  and  put  to 
covering.  He  stood  one  season,  at  Boydton,  in  Yirginia,  at  $75, 
and  $100  to  insure — and  one  or  two  short  seasons  at  Baltimore, 
at  $50 — and  since  then,  we  believe,  in  New  York. 


THE  GEEAT  MATCH  KACE  BETWEEN  ECLIPSE  AND  SIR  HEKRY. 

DESCRIBED  BY  AN  OLD  TURFMAN,    C.  C.  GOLDEN,  ESQ. 
From  the  Am.  Sporting  Magazine,  Vol.  ii,  No.  1,   p.  3. 

New  York,  July  3,  1830. 

Mr.  Editor  ; 

As  I  have  never  seen  in  print  a  full,  correct,  and  impartial 
account  of  the  following  great  race,  and  having,  at  the  time, 
committed  my  observations  to  paper,  I  now  transmit  them.  As 
many  of  your  readers  may  not  have  witnessed  this  far-famed 
performance,  to  such  this  relation  may  be  interesting ;  should 
you,  therefore,  deem  it  worth  a  place  in  your  entertaining  pub- 
lication, you  are  at  liberty  to  insert  it. 

Great  Match  Race  between  American  Eclipse  and  Sir  Henry,  over  the 
Union  Course,  Long  Island,  May  27th,  1823.  Heats  four  miles, 
for  $20,000.  The  Southern  gentlemen  to  he  allowed  to  name  their 
horse  at  the  starting  post. 

Doubts  were  entertained,  by  some  of  the  New  York  sports- 
men, to  the  last  moment,  whether  this  great  match  would  be 
contested  by  the  Yirginia  gentlemen.  They,  it  was  perfectly 
understood,  had  left  Yirginia,  with  five  horses,  selected  from 
the  best  racers  which  North  Carolina  and  Yirginia  could  boast 


184  THE    HOKSE. 

of,  and  proceeded  to  the  estate  of  Mr.  Bel  a  Badger,  adjacent 
to  Bristol,  in  Pennsylvania,  distant  from  the  Union  course,  about 
ninety  miles,  where,  having  a  fine  course  upon  which  to  exer- 
cise and  try  their  horses,  they  had  made  a  halt. 

Tlie  horses  selected  for  this  great  occasion,  as  also  to  contend 
for  the  three  purse  races  to  be  run  for,  on  the  three  days  subsequent 
to  the  match,  heats  of  four,  three,  and  two  miles  ;  were  Betsey 
Richards,  five  years  old  ;  her  full  brother,  John  Richards,  four 
years  ;  Sir  Henry,  four  years  ;  Flying  Childers,  five  years  ;  all 
by  Sir  Archy ;  and  Washington,  four  years  old,  by  Timoleon,  a 
son  of  Sir  Archy.  "With  one  of  the  three  first  named,  it  was 
the  intention  of  Mr.  William  R.  Johnson  to  run  the  match. 
Of  these,  at  the  time  he  left  home,  John  Richards  was  his  fa- 
vorite ;  his  next  choice  was  Sir  Henry,  and  thirdly,  the  mare  ; 
altliough  some  of  the  Southern  gentlemen — and  amongst  others 
General  Wynn — gave  their  opinion  in  favor  of  running  the 
mare,  fearing  lest  Henry  might  get  frightened  by  so  large  a 
crowd  of  people  and  swerve  from  the  track. 

Unfortunately  for  the  Virginians,  their  favorite,  John  Rich- 
ards, in  a  trial  race,  while  at  Mr,  Badger's,  met  with  an  accident, 
by  receiving  a  cut  in  the  heel  or  frog  of  one  of  his  fore  feet, 
which  rendered  it  necessary  to  throw  him  out  of  train  ;  Wash- 
ington also  fell  amiss,  and  he  and  Richards  were  left  behind  at 
Mr.  Badger's.  With  the  other  three  the  Southern  sportsmen 
proceeded  to  the  Union  course,  where  they  arrived  five  or  six 
days  previous  to  that  fixed  upon  for  the  match. 

The  ill-fortune  which  befell  the  Yirginians,  by  laming  their 
best  horse  in  the  onset,  seemed  to  pursue  them,  for  scarcely  had 
they  arrived  at  Long  Island,  and  become  fixed  in  their  new 
quarters,  when  Mr.  Johnson,  the  principal  on  their  part,  upon 
whose  management  and  attention  their  success  in  a  great  mea- 
sure depended,  was  seized  with  indisposition,  so  sudden  and 
violent,  as  to  confine  him  not  only  to  his  room,  but  to  his  bed, 
which  he  was  unable  to  leave  on  the  day  of  the  race.  Thus 
the  Southrons,  deprived  of  their  leader,  whose  skill  and  judg- 
ment, whether  in  the  way  of  stable  preparation,  or  generalship 
in  the  field,  could  be  supplied  by  none  otlier,  had  to  face  their 
opponents  under  circumstances  thus  far  disadvantageous  and 
discouraging.     Notwithstanding  these  unexpected  and  untoward 


DESCRIPTION    OF    SIR    HENKY,  185 

events,  they  met  the  coming  contest  manfully,  having  full  and 
imimpaired  confidence  in  their  two  remaining  horses.  Sir  Henry 
and  Betsey  Eichards,  and  backed  their  opinion  to  the  moment 
of  starting. 

At  length  the  rising  sun  gave  promise  that  the  eventful  day 
■would  prove  fine  and  unclouded.  I  was  in  the  field  at  the  peep 
of  dawn,  and  observed  that  the  Southern  horse  and  mare,  led  by 
Harry  Curtis  in  their  walk,  were  both  plated,  treated  alike,  and 
both  in  readiness  for  the  approaching  contest.  It  was  yet  unknown 
to  the  Northern  sportsmen  which  was  to  be  their  competitor. 

The  road  from  New  York  to  the  course,  a  distance  of  eight 
miles,  was  covered  by  horsemen,  and  a  triple  line  of  carriages, 
in  an  unbroken  chain,  from  the  dawn  of  day  until  one  o'clock, 
the  appointed  hour  of  starting.  The  stands  on  the  ground,  for 
the  reception  of  spectators,  were  crowded  to  excess  at  an  early 
hour,  and  the  club  house,  and  balcony  extending  along  its  whole 
front,  was  filled  by  ladies ;  the  whole  track,  or  nearly  so,  for  a 
mile  distance  in  circuit,  was  lined  on  the  inside  by  carriages 
and  horsemen,  and  the  throng  of  pedestrians  surpassed  all  be- 
lief— not  less  than  sixty  thousand  spectators  were  com/puted  to 
he  in  the  field. 

About  half-past  twelve  o'clock  Sir  Henry  made  his  appear- 
ance on  the  course,  as  the  champion  of  the  South,  and  was 
soon  confronted  by  his  antagonist. 

I  shall  now  endeavor  to  give  a  brief  description  of  these 
noted  racers. 

Sir  Henry  is  a  dark  sorrel,  or  chestnut  color,  with  one  hind 
foot  white,  and  a  small  star  in  the  forehead  ;  his  mane  and  tail 
about  two  shades  lighter  than  that  of  his  body ;  he  has  been  rep- 
resented as  being  fifteen  hands  and  one  inch  high,  but  having 
taken  his  measure,  his  exact  height  is  only  fourteen  hands  three 
and  a  half  inches.  His  form  is  compact,  bordering  upon 
what  is  termed  pony-built,  with  a  good  shoulder,  fine  clean 
head,  and  all  those  points  which  constitute  a  fine  forehand  ;  his 
barrel  is  strong,  and  well  ribbed  up  towards  the  hip  ;  waist 
rather  short ;  chine  bone  strong,  rising  or  arched  a  little  over 
the  loin,  indicative  of  ability  to  carry  weight ;  sway  short ;  the 
loin  full  and  strong  ;  haunches  strong,  and  well  let  down ;  hind 
quarters  somewhat  high,  and  sloping  off  from  the  coupling  to  the 


186  THE    HOUSE. 

croup  ;  tliiglis  full  and  muscular,  ^Yithout  being  fleshy  ;  Iiocks,  or 
houghs,  strong,  wide,  and  pretty  "vvell  let  down ;  legs  remark- 
ably fine,  with  a  full  projwrtion  of  bone  ;  back  sinew,  or  Achilles 
tendon,  large,  and  well  detached  from  the  canon  bone  ;  stands 
firm,  clear,  and  even,  moves  remarkably  well,  with  his  feet  in 
line ;  possesses  great  action  and  muscular  power,  and  although 
rather  under  size,  the  exquisite  symmetry  of  his  form  indicates 
uncommon  strength  and  hardihood.  He  was  bred  by  Mr.  Le- 
muel Long,  near  Halifax,  in  the  State  of  Kortli  Carolina,  and 
foaled  on  the  17th  day  of  June,  1819.  He  was  got  by  Sir 
Archy,  son  of  imported  chestnut  Diomed,  his  dam  by  Diomed,* 
grandam  by  Bel-Air,  g.  g.  dam  by  Pilgrim,  g.  g.  g.  dam  by 
Valiaut,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Janus,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Jolly 
Hoger  ;  which  four  last  named  are  imported  horses,  and  are  to 
be  found  in  the  English  Stud  Book. 

Eclipse  is  a  dark  f  sorrel  horse,  with  a  star,  the  near  hind 
foot  w^hite,  said  to  be  fifteen  hands  three  inches  in  height,  but 
in  fact  measures,  by  the  standard,  only  fifteen  hands  and  two 
Indies.  He  possesses  great  power  and  substance,  being  well 
spread  and  full  made  throughout  his  whole  frame,  his  general 
mould  being  much  heavier  than  M'hat  is  commonly  met  with  in 
the  thoroughbred  blood-horse  ;  he  is,  however,  right  in  the 
cardinal  points,  very  deei>  in  the  girth,  with  a  good  length  of 
waist ;  loin  wide  and  strong  ;  shoulder  by  no  means  fine,  being 
somewhat  thick  and  heav^y,  yet  strong  and  deep  ;  breast  wide, 
and  apjjarently  too  full,  and  too  much  spread  for  a  horse  of 
great  speed  ;  arms  long,  strong,  and  muscular ;  head  by  no 
means  fine  ;  neck  somewhat  defective,  the  junction  with  the  head 
having  an  awkward  appearance,  and  too  fleshy,  and  bagging  too 
much  upon  the  underside  near  the  throttle  ;  his  fore  legs,  from 
the  knee  downwards,  are  short  and  strong,  with  a  large  share 
of  bone  and  sinew ;  upon  the  whole  his  forehand  is  too  heavy. 
To  counterbalance  this,  his  hind  quarters  are  as  near  perfection 
as  it  is  possible  to  imagine.  From  the  hooks,  or  hip  bone,  to 
the  extremity  of  the  hind  quarter,  including  the  whole  sweep 
from  the  hip  to  the  hough,  he  has  not  an  equal ;  with  long  and 
full  muscular  thighs,  let  down  almost  to  the  houghs,  which  are 

*  Son  of  imported  Diomed.         f  We  should  not  call  him  a  dark  chestnut. 


PKDIGRKE    OF    ECIJPSK.  187 

also  particularly  long,  and  well  let  down  npon  the  cannon  bone ; 
legs  short,  with  large  bone  and  strong  tendon,  well  detached, 
upon  which  he  stands  clear  and  even.  Although  his  form 
throughout  denotes  uncommon  strength,  yet  to  the  extraordi- 
nary fine  construction  of  his  hind  quarters,  I  conceive  him 
indebted  for  his  great  racing  powers,  continuance,  and  ability, 
equal  to  any  weight.  I  have  closely  observed  him  in  his  gal- 
lops ;  if  he  have  a  fault,  it  is  that  of  falling  a  little  too  heavy 
on  his  fore  feet,  and  dwelling  a  little  too  long  on  the  ground  ;  but 
then  the  style  and  regularity  with  which  he  brings  up  his  haunches, 
and   throws  his  gaskins  forward,  overbalance  other  defects. 

He  was  sired  by  Duroc,  a  Virginia  horse,  bred  by  Wade 
Moseby,  Esq.,  and  got  by  imported  chestnut  Diomed,  out  of 
Amanda,  by  Gray  Diomed,  a  son  of  old  Medley.  His — Eclipse's 
■ — dam  was  the  noted  gray  mare  Miller's  Damsel,  got  by  imported 
Messenger.  His  grandam,  an  English  mare,  imported  when 
three  years  old,  in  1795,  by  William  Constable,  Esq.,  of  New 
York,  bred  by  Lord  Grosvenor,  and  sired  by  PotSos,  son  of 
English  Eclipse.  His  g.  g.  dam  by  Gimcrack,  Gimcrack  by 
Cripple,  and  Cripple  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian.  He  was  bred 
by  General  ]N"atlianiel  Coles,  of  Queens  County,  Long  Island, 
and  foaled  on  the  25th  of  May,  1814. 

All  horses  date  their  age  from  the  1st  of  May.  Thus  a  horse 
foaled  any  time  in  the  year  1819,  would  be  considered  four  years 
old  on  the  1st  day  of  May,  1823.  Consequently,  Sir  Henry, 
although  not  four  years  old  complete  until  the  17th  day  of 
June,  had,  on  the  27th  of  May,  to  cany  the  regulated  weight 
— agreeably  to  the  then  rules  of  the  course — for  a  four-year-old, 
viz.  108  lbs.  Eclipse,  being  nine  years  old,  carried  weight  for 
an  aged  horse,  126  lbs. 

At  length  the  appointed  hour  arrived,  the  word  was  given  to 
saddle,  and  immediately  afterward  to  mount.  Eclipse  was  ridden 
by  William  Crafts,  dressed  in  a  crimson  jacket  and  cap,  and  Sir 
Henry  by  a  Virginia  boy,  of  the  name  of  John  Walden,  dressed 
in  a  sky-blue  jacket,  with  cap  of  same  color.  The  custom  on  the 
Union  Course  is  to  run  to  the  left  about,  or  with  the  left  liand  next 
to  the  poles ;  Eclipse,  by  lot,  had  the  left,  or  inside  station  at  the 
start.  Sir  Henry  took  his  ground  about  twenty-five  feet  wide  of 
him,  to  the  right,  with  the  evident  intention  of  making  a  run  in  a 


188  THK    HORSE. 

straight  line  for  the  lead.  The  preconcerted  signal  was  a  single 
tap  of  the  drum.  All  was  now  breathless  anxiety  ;  the  horses  came 
up  evenly  ;  the  eventful  signal  was  heard,  they  went  off  liand- 
somely  together ;  Henry,  apparently  quickest,  made  play  from  the 
score,  obtained  the  lead,  and  then  took  a  hard  pull.  By  the 
time  they  had  gone  the  first  quarter  of  a  mile,  which  brought 
them  round  the  first  turn,  to  the  commencement  of  what  is 
termed  the  back  side  of  the  course,  which  is  a  straight  run, 
comprising  the  second  quarter  of  a  mile,  he  was  full  three  lengths 
ahead  ;  this  distance  he  with  little  variation  maintained,  running 
steadily,  with  a  hard  pull,  during  the  first,  second,  third,  and 
for  about  three-fourths  of  the  fourth  round  or  mile ;  the  pace 
all  this  time  a  killing  one.  It  may  be  proper  to  note,  that  the 
course  is  nearly  an  oval,  of  one  mile,  with  this  small  variation, 
that  the  back  and  front  are  straight  lines  of  about  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  each,  connected  at  each  extremity  by  semicircles  of  also 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  each.  When  the  horses  were  going  the  last 
round,  being  myself  well  mounted,  I  took  my  station  at  the 
commencement  of  the  stretch  or  last  quarter,  where  I  expected 
a  violent  exertion  would  be  made  at  this  last  straight  run  in, 
when  they  left  the  straight  j)art  on  the  back  of  the  course,  and 
entered  upon  the  last  turn.  Henry  was,  as  heretofore,  not  less 
than  three  lengths  in  the  clear  ahead.  They  had  not  proceeded 
more  than  twenty  rods  upon  the  first  part  of  the  sweep,  when 
Eclipse  made  play,  and  the  spur  and  whip  were  both  applied 
freely ;  when  they  were  at  the  extreme  point  or  centre  of  the 
sweep,  I  observed  the  right  hand  of  Crafts  disengaged  iVom 
his  bridle,  making  free  use  of  his  whip  ;  when  they  had  swept 
about  three-fourths  of  the  way  round  the  turn,  and  had  ad- 
vanced within  twenty-five  rods  of  ray  station,  I  clearly  saw 
that  Crafts  was  making  every  exertion  with  both  spur  and  whip 
to  get  Eclipse  forward,  and  scored  him  sorely,  both  before  and 
behind  the  girths ;  at  this  moment  Eclipse  threw  his  tail  into 
the  air,  and  flirted  it  up  and  down,  after  the  manner  of  a  tired 
horse,  or  one  in  distress  and  great  pain  ;  and  John  Buckley,  the 
jockey — and  present  trainer — who  I  kept  stationed  by  my  side, 
observed,  "  Eclipse  is  done."  When  they  passed  me  about  the 
commencement  of  the  stretch,  seventy  to  eighty  rods  from  home, 
the  space  between  them  was  about  sixteen  feet,  or  a  full  length 


THE    FIRST    HEAT.  .  189 

and  a  half  in  the  clear.  Here  the  rider  of  Henry  turned  his 
head  round,  and  took  a  view  for  an  instant  of  his  adversary ; 
Walden  used  neither  whip  nor  spur ;  but  maintained  a  hard  and 
steady  pull,  under  which  his  horse  appeared  accustomed  to  run. 
Crafts  continued  to  make  free  use  of  the  whip  ;  his  right  hand  in 
so  doing  Avas  necessarily  disengaged  from  the  bridle,  his  arm  often 
raised  high  in  air,  his  body  thrown  abroad,  and  his  seat  loose 
and  unsteady  ;  not  having  strength  to  hold  and  gather  his  horse 
with  one  hand,  and  at  the  same  time  keep  his  proper  position  ; 
in  order  to  acquire  a  greater  purchase,  he  had  thrown  his  body 
quite  back  to  the  cantle  of  the  saddle,  stuck  his  feet  forward 
by  way  of  bracing  himself  with  the  aid  of  the  stirrups,  and  in 
this  style  he  was  belaboring  his  horse  going  in  the  last  quarter. 
Buckley  exclaimed — and  well  he  might — "  Good  G — d,  look  at 
Billy."  From  this  place  to  the  winning  post.  Eclipse  gained 
but  a  few  feet,  Henry  coming  in  ahead  about  a  length  in  the 
clear.  The  shortest  time  of  this  heat,  as  returned  by  the  judges 
on  the  stand,  was  Y  min.  37^  sec.  Many  watches,  and  mine 
— which  was  held  by  a  gentleman  on  the  stand — among  others, 
made  it  7  min.  40  sec. ;  and  this  time  the  Southern  gentlemen 
reported — see  Mr.  Johnson's  letter  of  the  28th  of  May,  ad- 
dressed to  Mr.  Crawford,  editor  of  the  Yirginia  Times. 

I  pushed  immediately  up  to  the  winning  j)ost,  in  order  to 
view  the  situation  of  the  respective  horses,  after  this  very  try- 
ing and  severe  heat ;  for  it  was  in  fact  running  the  whole  four 
miles.  Sir  Henry  was  less  distressed  than  I  expected  to  find 
him.  Eclipse  also  bore  it  well,  but  of  the  two,  he  appeared  the 
most  jaded ;  the  injudicious  manner  in  which  he  had  been 
ridden,  had  certainly  annoyed,  and  unnecessarily  distressed  him ; 
the  cause  of  his  throwing  out  his  tail,  and  flirting  it  up  and 
down,  as  already  observed,  was  now  apparent ;  Crafts,  in  using 
his  whip  wildly,  had  struck  him  too  far  back,  and  had  cut  him 
not  only  upon  his  sheath,  but  had  made  a  deep  incision  upon 
his  testicles,  and  it  was  no  doubt  the  violent  pain  occasioned 
thereby,  that  caused  the  noble  animal  to  complain,  and  motion 
with  his  tail,  indicative  of  the  torture  he  suffered.  The  blood 
flowed  profusely  from  one  or  both  of  these  foul  cuts,  and  trick- 
ling down  the  inside  of  his  hind  legs,  appeared  conspicuously 


190  THK    HORSE. 

upon  the  white  hind  foot,  and  gave  a  more  doleful  appearance 
to  the  discouraging  scene  of  a  lost  heat. 

Tlie  incapacity  of  Crafts  to  manage  Eclipse — who  required 
much  urging,  and  at  the  same  time  to  be  pulled  hard — was  ap- 
parent to  all ;  he  being  a  slender  made  lad,  in  body  weight 
about  100  lbs.  only.  A  person  interested  in  the  event,  seeing 
Buckley,  who  had  ridden  the  horse  on  a  former  occasion,  with 
me,  requested  that  I  would  keep  him  within  call,  and  ready  to 
ride  in  case  of  an  emergency.  It  was,  however,  soon  settled, 
and  announced,  that  Mr.  Purdy  would  ride  him  the  second 
heat,  npon  which  long  faces  grew  shorter,  and  Northern  hope 
revived.— Six  to  four  Avas,  nevertheless,  oifered  on  the  Southern 
horse,  but  no  takers. 

Second  Heat. — ^The  horses,  after  a  lapse  of  30  minutes,  were 
called  up  for  a  second  heat.  I  attentively  viewed  Eclipse  while 
saddling,  and  was  surprised  to  find  that  to  appearance  he  had  not 
only  entirely  recovered,  but  seemed  full  of  mettle,  lashing  and 
reaching  out  with  his  hind  feet,  anxious  and  impatient  to  renew 
the  contest.  Mr.  Purdy  having  mounted  his  favorite,  was  per- 
fectly at  home,  and  self-coniident.  The  signal  being  again 
given,  he  went  off  rapidly  from  the  start ;  Sir  Henry  being 
now  entitled  to  the  inside,  took  the  track,  and  kept  the  lead, 
followed  closely  by  Eclipse,  whom  Mr.  Purdy  at  once  brought 
to  his  work,  knowing  that  game  and  stoutness  was  his  play, 
and  his  only  chance  of  success,  that  of  driving  his  speedy  ad- 
versary, up  to  the  top  of  his  rate,  without  giving  him  the  least 
respite.  Henry  went  steadily  on,  nearly  at  the  top  of  his  speed, 
keeping  a  gap  open  between  himself  and  Eclipse,  of  about 
twenty  feet  without  much  variation,  for  about  two  miles  and 
seven  eighths,  or  until  towards  the  conclusion  of  the  thii-d 
mile  they  had  arrived  nearly  opposite  the  four-mile  distance 
post.  Here  Mr.  Purdy  made  his  run,  and  when  they  had  ad- 
vanced forty  rods  further,  which  brought  them  to  the  end  of  the 
third  mile,  was  close  up,  say  nose  and  tail.  They  now  entered 
upon  the  fourth  and  last  mile,  which  commences  with  a  turn  or 
sweep  the  moment  you  leave  the  starting  post.  Here  the 
crowd  was  immense;  I  was  at  this  moment  on  horseback, 
stationed  down  the  stretch  or  straight  run,  a  short  distance 
below  the  winning  post,  in  company  with  a  friend,  and  Buck- 


THE    SECOND   HEAT.  191 

ley,  the  jockey,  who  kept  close  to  me  during  the  whole  race. 
We  i^ushed  out  into  the  centre,  or  open  space  of  the  ground,  in 
order  to  obtain  a  more  distinct  view  of  the  struggle,  wdiich  we 
saw  making,  for  the  lead ;  every  thing  depended  upon  this  effort 
of  Purdy ;  well  he  knew  it ;  his  case  was  a  desperate  one,  and 
required  a  desperate  attempt ;  it  was  to  risk  all,  for  all ;  he  did 
not  hesitate.  When  the  horses  had  got  about  one  third  of  the 
way  round  the  sweep,  they  had  so  far  cleared  the  crowd  as  to 
afford  us  a  distinct  view  of  them  a  little  before  they  reached 
the  centre  of  the  turn  ;  Eclipse  had  lapped  Henry  about  head 
and  girth,  and  appeared  evidently  in  the  act  of  passing.  Here 
Buckley  vociferated,  See  Eclipse  !  look  at  Purdy !  By  heaven, 
on  the  inside  !  I  was  all  attention.  Purdy  was  on  the  left 
hand  or  inside  of  Henry ;  I  felt  alarmed  for  the  consequence, 
satisfied  that  he  had  thus  hazarded  all ;  I  feared  that  Walden 
would  take  advantage  of  his  position,  and  by  reining  in,  force 
him  against  or  inside  one  of  the  poles.  When  they  had  pro- 
ceeded a  little  more  than  half  way  round  the  sweep,  the  horses 
were  a  dead  lap;  when  about  three-fourths  round,  Eclipse's 
quarter  covered  Henry's  head  and  neck ;  and  just  as  they  had 
finished  the  bend,  and  were  entering  upon  the  straight  run, 
which  extends  along  the  back  part  of  the  course.  Eclipse  for 
the  first  time  was  fairly  clear,  and  ahead.  He  now,  with  the 
help  of  the  persuaders,  which  were  freely  bestowed,  kept  up 
his  run,  and  continued  gradually,  though  slowly,  to  gain  during 
the  remaining  three  quarters  of  a  mile,  and  came  in  about  two 
lengths  ahead.  As  they  passed  up  the  stretch  or  last  quarter 
of  a  mile,  the  shouting,  clapping  of  hands,  waving  of  handker- 
chiefs, long  and  loud  applause  sent  forth  by  the  Eclipse  party, 
exceeded  all  description ;  it  seemed  to  roll  along  the  track  as 
the  horses  advanced,  resembling  the  loud  and  reiterated  shout 
of  contending  armies. 

I  have  been  thus  particular  in  stating  that  Mr.  Purdy  made 
his  pass  on  the  inside,  understanding  that  many  gentlemen,  and 
particularly  Mr.  Stevens,  the  principal  in  the  match  on  the  part 
of  Eclipse— and  for»  aught  I  know  Mr.  Purdy  himself— insist 
that  the  go  hj  was  given  on  the  outside.  After  the  heat  was 
over,  I  found  that  my  friend  Mr.  M.  Buckley,  and  myself,  were 
far  from  the  only  persons  that  had  observed  the  mode  in  which 


192  THE    HORSE. 

Mr.  Purdj  ran  up  and  took  the  inside  track  from  Lis  adversary. 
The  circumstance  was  in  the  months  of  hundreds.  In  corrobo- 
ration of  wliich,  I  will  quote  a  passage  from  the  New  York 
Evening  Post,  of  May  28th,  1823,  giving  a  description  of  this 
second  heat : — "  Henry  took  the  lead  as  in  the  first  heat,  until 
about  two-thirds  around  on  the  third  mile,  when  Purdy  seized 
with  a  quickness  and  dexterity  peculiar  to  himself,  the  favora- 
ble moment  that  presented,  when  appearing  to  aim  at  the  out- 
side, he  might  gain  the  inside,  made  a  dash  at  him  accordingly, 
and  2?assed  him  on  the  lefty 

Here,  then,  the  observations  of  many,  independent  of  my 
friend  Mr.  M.  Buckley,  or  myself,  added  to  the  instantaneous 
and  striking  remark  of  B.,  which  did  not  fail  to  rivet  my  pecu- 
liar attention,  form  a  wonderful  coincidence.  Thus  circum- 
stanced, and  long  conversant  with  turf  matters,  rules,  and 
practices,  and  familiar  with  sights  of  this  kind,  it  was  impossible 
I  could  be  mistaken.  I  was  not  mistaken,  the  honest  belief  of 
some  gentlemen  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Time,  this  second  heat,  7  minutes,  49  seconds. 

Third  Heat. — It  was  now  given  out,  that  in  place  of  the 
boy  Walden,  who  had  rode  Sir  Henry  the  two  preceding  heats, 
that  Arthur  Taylor,  a  trainer  of  great  experience,  and  long  a 
rider,  equalled  by  few,  and  surpassed  by  none,  would  ride  him 
this  last  and  decisive  heat.  At  the  expiration  of  thirty  minutes 
the  horses  were  once  more  summoned  to  the  starting  post,  and 
Purdy  and  Taylor  mounted  ;  the  word  being  given,  they  went 
off  at  a  quick  rate  ;  Purdy  now  taking  the  lead,  and  pushing 
Eclipse  from  the  score ;  and  indeed,  the  whole  four  miles,  ap- 
plying the  whip  and  spur  incessantly ;  evidently  resolved  to 
give  Sir  Henry  no  respite,  but  to  cause  him,  if  determined  to 
trail,  to  employ  all  his  sj)eed  and  strength,  without  keeping  any 
thing  in  reserve  for  the  run  in.  Sir  Henry  continued  to  trail, 
apparently  under  a  pull,  never  attempting  to  come  up,  until 
they  had  both  ftiirly  entered  the  straight  run  towards  the  termi- 
nation of  the  last  mile,  and  had  advanced  within  about  sixty 
rods  from  home.  Here  Sir  Henry  being  about  five  yards  be- 
hind, made  a  dash,  and  ran  up  to  Eclipse,  so  far  as  to  cover  his 
quarter  or  haunch  with  his  head,  and  for  a  moment  had  the  ap- 
pearance of  going  past ;  he  made  a  severe  struggle  for  about 


THE   SECOND   CHALLENGE.  193 

two  hundred  yards,  when  he  again  fell  in  the  rear,  and  gave  up 
the  contest. 

Thus  terminated  the  most  interesting  race  ever  run  in  the 
United  States.  Besides  the  original  stake  of  $20,000  each,  it 
was  judged  that  upwards  of  $200,000  changed  hands. 

In  this  last  heat  Sir  Henry  carried  110  lbs.,  being  two 
pounds  over  his  proper  weight ;  it  not  being  possible  to  bring 
Arthur  Taylor  to  ride  less,  and  although  a  small  horse,  and 
wanting  twenty  days  of  being  four  years  old,  he  made  the 
greatest  run  ever  witnessed  in  America. 

Time,  this  heat,  8  minutes,  24  seconds. 

Thus  the  three  heats,  or  twelve  miles,  were  run  in  23  min- 
utes, 50f  seconds,  or  an  average  of  Y  minutes,  57  seconds  each 
heat ;  or  1  minute,  59  seconds  per  mile. 

Notwithstanding  this  defeat,  the  Southern  sportsmen  contin- 
ued to  be  inspired  with  so  much  confidence  in  tlieir  horse,  that 
they  offered  to  renew  the  contest  for  a  much  larger  amount,  as 
appears  by  the  following  challenge  and  the  answer  thereto, 
which  I  give  as  connected  with  the  event. 

To  John  C.  Stevens,  Esq. 

Long  Island,  May  28,  1823. 

Sir — I  will  ran  the  horse  Henry  against  the  horse  Eclipse 
at  Washington  city,  next  fall,  the  day  before  the  Jockey  Club 
purse  is  run  for,  for  any  sum  from  twenty  to  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars ;  forfeit  ten  thousand  dollars.  The  forfeit  and  stake  to  be 
deposited  in  the  Branch  Bank  of  the  United  States  at  Washing- 
ton, at  any  nameable  time,  to  be  appointed  by  you. 

Although  this  is  addressed  to  you  individually,  it  is  intended 
for  all  the  betters  on  Eclipse,  and  if  agreeable  to  you  and  them, 
you  may  have  the  liberty  of  substituting  at  the  starting  post,  in 
the  place  of  Eclipse,  any  horse,  mare,  or  gelding,  foaled  and 
owned  on  the  northern  and  eastern  side  of  the  JSTorth  River,  pro- 
vided, I  have  the  liberty  of  substituting  in  the  place  of  Henry, 
at  the  starting  post,  any  horse,  mare,  or  gelding,  foaled  and 
owned  on  the  south  side  of  the  Potomac.  As  we  propose  run- 
ning at  Washington  city,  the  rules  of  that  Jockey  Club  must 
govern  of  course. 

I  am  respectfully,  yours, 

William  R.  Johnson. 
Vol.  I.— 13 


194:  THE    UOIiSE. 


ANSWEK. 


Dear  Sir — The  bet  just  decided  was  made  under  circum- 
stances of  excitement,  which  might  in  some  measure  apologize 
for  its  rashness,  but  would  scarcely  justify  it  as  an  example ; 
and  I  trust  the  part  I  took  in  it,  will  not  be  considered  as  a 
proof  of  my  intention  to  become  a  patron  of  sporting  on  so  ex- 
tensive a  scale.  For  myself,  then,  I  must  decline  the  oflfer. 
For  the  gentlemen  who  with  me  backed  Eclipse,  their  confidence 
in  his  superiority,  I  may  safely  say,  is  not  in  the  least  impaired. 
But  even  they  do  not  hesitate  to  believe,  that  old  age  and  hard 
service  may  one  day  accomplish,  what  strength  and  fleetuess, 
directed  by  consummate  skill,  has  hitherto  failed  to  accom- 
plish. 

For  Mr.  Van  Ranst  I  answer,  that  he  owes  it  to  the  associa- 
tion who  have  so  confidently  supported  him,  to  the  State  at 
large,  who  have  felt  and  expressed  so  much  interest  in  his  suc- 
cess, and  to  himself  as  a  man,  not  totally  divested  of  feeling, 
never,  on  any  consideration,  to  risk  the  life  or  reputation  of  the 
noble  animal,  whose  generous,  and  almost  incredible  exertions, 
have  gained  for  the  North  so  signal  a  victory,  and  for  himself 
such  well  earned  and  never  failing  renown. 

I  remain,  sir,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

John  C.  Stevens. 
Wm.  E..  Johnson,  Esq. 

As  Mr.  -Van  Eanst,  in  a  little  work  issued  from  the  press,  at 
his  instance,  entitled,  "  The  History  of  American  Eclipse,"  has 
touched  upon  the  comparative  powers  of  the  English  race- 
horses, of  the  past  and  present  day,  before  I  take  leave  of  the 
subject,  I  propose,  hereafter,  to  offer  a  few  remarks  in  reply. 

An  Old  Tukfmajs'. 


PEDIGEEE 

AND     PERFORMANCES    OF    ARIEL. 

Fifty-seven  race»— forty-two  times  a  winner,  andof  seventeen  four-mile  heats — 
having  run  345  miles — travelled  near  3,000 — and  won  about  $25,000. 

Of  all  the  descendants  of  American  Eclipse,  none  have  held, 
and  held  deservedly,  a  higher  place  than  this  noble  mare.  Her 
pedigree  is  undeniable  ;  her  performances,  in  regard  to  stoutness 
more  particularly,  almost  miraculous. 

I  well  remember,  long  before  my  arrival  in  this  country, 
long,  indeed,  before  I  entertained  any  indea  of  making  it  my 
home,  reading  of  her  performances  in  the  English  newspapers, 
at  a  time  when  matters  of  local  interest  in  America,  sejdora 
found  a  j^lace  in  the  European  prints,  and  to  be  mentioned  in 
them  was,  in  itself,  a  proof  of  real  celebrity. 

She  was  a  beautiful  gray,  about  fifteen  hands  high,  of  good 
proportions,  strong  make,  and,  in  action,  said  to  have  been  strik- 
ingly handsome. 

The  following  account  is  from  the  American  Turf  Register 
of  Sept.,  1834. 

Ariel  certainly  ranks  with  the  best  race-horses  of  any  age  or 
clime.  To  adopt  the  language  of  a  valued  correspondent,  "  we 
doubt  whether  any  horse  of  any  '  region '  ever  did  more  good 
running,  attended  with  such  extensive  and  constant  travel." 
From  reference  to  English  works  and  to  our  own  pages,  we  find 
no  account  of  any  horse  that  has  either  run  or  won  as  many 
races.  In  her  last  campaign  in  "  the  race-horse  region,"  she  ran 
and  won  thirty-six  miles  in  fifteen  days  :  the  first  race,  four-mile 


196  THE    HORSE. 

heals  at  Norfolk,  beating  horses  of  high  reputation,  and  winning 
the  second  lieat  in  Tm.  43s, ;  the  next  a  race  of  three-mile  heats, 
at  Broad  Rock,  where  at  four  heats,  the  last  in  5m.  47s.,  she 
beat  the  "  crack  nags  "  of  Virginia ;  and  the  third,  another  race 
of  four-mile  heats,  severely  contested,  again  won  in  four  heats, 
and  in  extraordinary  time.  On  the  eighth  day  thereafter  she 
was  beaten,  the  four-mile  heats,  by  a  very  superior  three-year- 
old  ;  an  excellent  race  ;  yet,  in  the  two  consecutive  weeks,  im- 
mediately succeeding,  she  won  two  more  races. 

Tlie  English  "patriarchs"  Childers,  Eclipse,  and  Highflyer, 
probably  had  more  sj^eed  ;  and  our  Timoleon,*  Gallatin,  Sally 
Walker,  and  Henry,  have  run  one,  two,  three,  and  four  miles, 
something  quicker  than  Ariel,  but  neither  of  them  exhibited  the 
same  degree  of  bottom  and  durability ;  few  were  put  to  the 
same  test,  nor  do  we  believe  as  much  money  has  been  staked 
on  either.  Others,  in  England,  equally  or  more  distinguished 
in  some  respects,  were  not  as  much  so  in  others. 

If  it  were  her  fate  sometimes  to  encounter  a  superior,  she 
was  never  beaten  by  that  one  in  a  second  camioa'iyn ;  when 
Monsieur  Tonson  and  Sally  Walker  were  her  victors,  during  the 
short  period  of  their  glorious  triumphs,  she  may  not  have  been 
in  equal  condition.  Recovering  readily  from  the  effects  of  a 
hard  race,  she  started  every  season,  at  every  meeting  within  her 
reach,  wearing  down  all  opponents  ;  she  was  never  known  to  be 
lame,  even  to  the  close  of  her  long  and  brilliant  career. 

When  beat  by  Flirtilla  in  their  great  match,  so  admirably 
described  by  "An  Old  Turfman,"  she  yielded  to  a  noble  foe, 
who  had  borne  off  every  laurel  that  season,  and,  the  next,  con- 
tinued her  triumphs,  until  she  broke  down  with  the  wreath  of 
victoryf  almost  within  her  grasp.  "  It  was  considered  marvel- 
lous, that  a  three-year-old  should  make  such  a  contest  witJi  such 
an  adversary  ;"  especially  as  she  must  have  been  "  huri-ied  in 
her  work,"  to  have  changed  her  condition  in  the  brief  interval 
from  her  other  match. 


*  One,  two,  three  and  four  miles  have  been  run  by  them  in  Im.  478.,  3m.  43s., 
5m.  42s.,  and  "Zm.  38s. 

\  Flirtilla,  in  the  Jockey  Club  race,  four-mile  heats,  at  Xewmarket,  having  won 
the  first  heat,  severely  contested  by  Shakspcare,  broke  down  in  the  second ;  and 
the  race  was  won  by  Gohanna,  who  had  merely  saved  his  distance  the  first  heat. 


PEDIGREE   OF    ARIEL.  197 

In  the  aggregate^  taking  into  view  speed,  bottom,  and  dura- 
bility ;  amount  of  running,  travel,  and  of  sums  "  lost  and  won" 
on  her,  we  think  Ariel  stands  unrivalled.  Her  time,  from  one 
to  four  miles  and  more,  is  scarce  second,  at  any  distance,  to  any 
on  authentic  record.  At  three  years  old,  she  ran  a  mile  on  the 
Union  Course,  winning  several  lengths,  well  in  hand,  in  Im.  48s. ; 
a  few  weeks  after  she  won  a  three-mile  heat,  running  the  two  last 
miles  in  3m.  47s. ;  at  eight  years  old,  on  the  same  course,  she 
was  beat  about  two  lengths  by  Arietta,  in  two  miles,  run  in 
3m.  44s. ;  at  five  years  old,  she  ran  a  second  heat  of  three  miles, 
beat  about  a  length,  by  Sally  Walker,  in  5m.  42s. ;  and  at  six 
years  old,  won  readily  a  second  heat  of  four  miles  in  7m.  43s. 
Such  stoutness  was  never  exemplified,  as  in  her  sixteen-mile  race 
at  Newmarket ;  where,  after  winning  the  second  heat  of  four 
miles,  she  closely  contested  the  third.,  run  in  Im.  57s.,  and  won 
the  fourth  four-mile  heat  in  8m.  4«.  .■' — the  best  third  and  fourth 
heats  ever  run.  Of  the  ffty-seven  races  she  has  run,  she  has 
he&n.  fo7'ty-two  times  a  winner,  having  actually  won  seventeen 
Jockey  Cluh  purses,  of  four-7nile  heats,  and  run  in  public  more 
than  345  miles.  For  five  years,  from  the  spring  she  was  three, 
to  the  autumn  of  eight  years  old,  she  was  the  ornament  and 
dread  of  the  turf,  from  IN'ew  York  to  Georgia.  She  must  have 
travelled  at  least  3,000  miles — perhaps  more.  In  her  matches, 
and  Jockey  Club  purses,  she  has  "  lost  and  won"  about  $50,000. 


Ariel's  pedigree  is  worthy  of  her  performances.  Her  own 
brothers — Lance,  a  year  older  than  herself,  a  distinguished  runner 
that  beat  the  famous  Trouble,  a  great  match — O'Kelly,  that  beat 
Flying  Dutchman,  Mary  Randolph,  and  others,  with  such  eclat 
as  to  bring  $5,000 — and  St.  Leger  in  the  great  sweepstake  in 
Baltimore,  where  he  was  so  unaccountably  beaten,  but  has  since 
beat  Terror — ^her  own  sister  Angeline,  and  half  brother  Splendid, 
by  Duroc,  that  was  beat  at  three  years  old,  in  a  produce  match, 
by  Col.  Johnson's  Medley — are  all  well  known  to  fame.  Her 
grandam  gray  mare  Empress,  has  also  been  regarded  one  of  the 
most  renowned  race  nags  and  brood  mares  of  the  North.  Octo- 
ber, 1804,  at  four  years  old,  she  very  unexpectedly  beat  the 


198  iiiK  iroKSK. 

famous  First  Consul,  I'or  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  four-mile  heats, 
at  Harlem,  N.  Y.     The  first  race  he  lost. 

Besides  combining  the  three  valued  crosses  of  Ilerod, 
Matchem,  and  Eclipse,  it  will  be  observed  Ariel's  pedigree  is 
"richly  imbued  with  the  best  English  blood ; "  to  which  she 
traces  almost  directly  from  Childers,  Partner,  Crab,  Snap,  Cade, 
Spark,  Othello,  Gimcrack,  Mambrino^  Medley,  PotSos,  Messenger 
Baronet,  Diomed,  &c. ;  besides  deriving  her  descent  from  the 
best  early  importations.  No  other  stock  probably  partakes  as 
much  of  the  Messenger  blood — ^no  less  than  four  crosses  ;  with 
two,  not  very  remote,  from  English  Eclipse,  two  from  Gimcrack, 
two  from  imported  Pacolet,  and  three  from  imjjorted  Spark. 
Her  color  sustains  her  valuable  origin — running  so  much  into 
the  Arabian  blood. 

To  correct  what  may  seem  trifling  errors  in  the  pedigree  of 
Ariel,  before  published,  we  now  furnish  it  in  full ;  as  collated 
with  all  the  information  to  be  obtained,  from  the  most  authentic 
sources — especially  Edgar's  "American  Stud  Book." 

From  the  certificates  published  in  the  second  volume  of  the 
American  Turf  Kegister,  page  566,  it  appears  Ariel  was  bred 
in  1822,  by  Mr.  Gerrit  Yanderveer,  of  Flatbush,  on  Long  Island, 
Kings  county,  New  York ;  and  that  she  was  got  by  American 
Eclipse ;  her  dam  by  Financier  \  grandam  Empress,  by  imported 
Baronet ;  great  grandam,  by  imp.  Messenger  ;  her  dam  by  Snap 
out  of  Jenny  Duter,  by  True  Briton  ;  her  dam  Quaker  Lass  by 
imported  Juniper,  out  of  the  imported  Molly  Pacolet,  by  imp. 
Pacolet ;  Molly  Pacolet's  dam  by  imported  Spark,  out  of  Queen 
Mab,  also  imported,  by  Musgrove's  gray  Arabian — Hampton 
Court  Childers — chestnut  Arabian — Leed's — Barb  mare,  Slugey, 
dam  of  Croft's  famous  Greyliound,  imported  into  England  by 
Mr.  Marshall,  master  of  the  horse,  in  the  reign  of  William  and 
Mary,  of  course  anterior  to  1694. 

American  Eclipse,  bred  by  Gen.  Coles  of  L.  L,  foaled  1814 ; 
was  got  by  Duroc,  his  dam  the  famed  race  mare  Miller's  Damsel, 
by  imported  Messenger,  out  of  the  imjjortcd  PotSos  mare ;  her 
dam  by  Gimcrack.  Duroc,  bred  by  Wade  Mosely,  Esq.,  of 
Powhatan  county,  Yirginia,  foaled  1809  :  was  got  by  imported 
Diomed,  out  of  Mr.  Mosely's  "  extraordinaiy  race  mare 
Amanda,"  by  Col.  Tayloe's  famed  gray  Diomed,  son  of  imp. 


Ariel's  ancestry.  199 

Medley.  Thus  far  Eclipse's  pedigree  is  unquestioned  ;  for  the 
balance,  see  American  Turf  Kegister,  p.  50,  vol.  4.  Of  Sir 
Charles  Bunbury's  Diomed,  imported  into  Yirginia  1799,  having 
"  filled  the  measure  of  his  glory,"  nothing  more  need  be  said. 
Messenger,  foaled  1788,  imported  about  1800  into  Pennsylvania, 
was  also  a  race-horse  of  repute  at  Newmarket ;  he  won  some 
good  races,  and  lost  but  few.*  He  was  a  gray,  of  great  sub- 
stance ;  was  got  by  Mambrino,  a  very  superior  stallion,  his  dam 
by  Turf,  son  of  Matchem,  Eegulus — Starling — Snap's  dam.  See 
English  Stud  Book,  and  American  EclijDse's  pedigree  in  full, 
American  Turf  Register,  p.  51,  vol.  4. 

Financier  was  got  by  Tippoo  Saib  ;  dam  by  imp.  Messenger, 
grandam  by  Bashaw  ;  great-grandam  by  Young  Bulle  Eock — 
the  famed  Selim — Hopper's  imported  Pacolet.  Tippoo  Saib,  a 
capital  racer  by  imported  Messenger,  his  dam  imported,  by 
Northumberland  —  Snap  —  Gypsey  by  Bay-Bolton  —  Duke  of 
Newcastle's  Turk — Byerly  Turk.  Tippoo  Saib  was  sire  to  the 
famous  Tippoo  Sultan,  that  beat  First  Consul,  1807,  and  chal- 
lenged Miller's  Damsel ;  and  was  out  of  Financier's  grandam  by 
Bashaw,  own  brother  to  the  famous  race  mare  Slammerkin ; 
the  ancestor  to  Ratler,  Sumter,  Childers,  Flirtilla,  Polly  Hopkins, 
Lady  Relief,  Jackson,  &c.,  the  son  of  imported  Wildair,  by 
Cade,  out  of  "  the  imported  Cub  mare."  Young  Bulle  Rock,  by 
Bulle  Rock,  son  of  imported  Spark ;  dam  by  imp.  Bulle  Rock, 
imported  1730  into  Yirginia — imp.  Dabster — imported  mare, 
out  of  the  famed  Britannia,  own  sister  to  True  Briton,  by  imp. 
Othello ;  her  dam  Gant's  imported  Milley.  Imp.  Bulle  Rock, 
by  the  Darley  Arabian — Lister  Turk — ^Natural  Arabian  mare. 
Lnported  Dabster  by  Hobgoblin — Spanker — Hautboy.  Selim, 
foaled  in  Maryland,  1759,  was  got  by  the  famed  imp.  Othello, 
out  Col.  Tasker's  famous  brood  mare,  imported  Selima,  by  the 
Godolphin  Arabian — said  to  be  sister  to  Babraham,  out  of  the 
large  Hartley  mare.  Selim,  the  best  race-horse  of  his  day,  was 
purchased  of  Col.  Tasker,  at  one  year  old,  for  £1000,  by  Sam'l 
Galloway,  Esq.,  who  beat  with  him  all  competitors,  in  the  best 
time,  until  after  nine  years  old.  See  American  Turf  Register, 
vol.  1,  pp.  17,  62,  and  480. 

*  It  has  been  erroneously  stated  that  imported  Messenger  never  was  beat.  He 
lost  several  races  in  1785.     See  English  Racing  Calendar. 


200  THE   HORSE. 

Financier,  a  famous  racer,  was  owned  and  probably  bred  by 
Isaac  Duckett,  Esq.,  of  Prince  George's  county,  tlie  land  of  his 
maternal  ancestry. — J.  V.  Bond,  of  Pennsylvania,  also  ran 
with  success,  1812-13,  a  chestnut  horse  called  Financier. 

Baronet,  bay,  sixteen  hands  high,  foaled  1785,  bred  by  Sir 
W.  Vavasour,  owned  and  run  by  the  Prince  of  Wales — George 
lY. — was  imported  into  N  ew  York.  He  was  got  by  Yertumnus, 
out  of  Penultima,  by  Snap — Cade — Crab — Childers — Confede- 
rate filly  by  gray  Grantham — Duke  of  Rutland's  Black  Barb. 
Yertumnus  by  Eclipse,  dam  by  Sweeper — son  of  Sloe — out  of  the 
Tartar  mare.  Mercury's  dam.  Baronet,  a  capital  racer,  won  for 
the  Prince  of  Wales — winner,  on  the  occasion,  of  17,000  guineas — 
the  great  Oatland  stakes  at  Ascot,  1791-2,  100  subscribers,  100 
guineas  each,  beating  the  best  horses  of  England,  a  handicap, 
for  all  ages. 

Snap — Gen.  Heard's — was  got  by  imp.  Figure,  out  of 
"  Heard's  thoroughbred  mare  Nettle.''*  Hamilton's  imp.  Figure, 
ran  with  great  celebrity  in  Maryland,  1768 ;  he  beat  the  famous 
Selim,  four-mile  heats  ;  was  imp.  in  Maryland,  1765,  he  was  got 
by  Figure — son  of  Standard — out  of  Mary  Ann,  by  Croft's  Part- 
ner— Bald  Galloway.     He  ran  with  celebrity  in  Maryland. 

True  Briton  by  imported  Othello,  out  of  Gant's  imported 
Milley.  Othello — ^imported  1757,  by  Gov.  Sharpe,  of  Mary- 
land— ^by  Crab,  out  of  Miss  Slammerldn,  by  Young  True  Blue. 
T]-ue  Briton  was  a  racer  of  celebrity ;  he  ran  a  great  match,  dis- 
tancing Old  England  at  Harlem,  'New  York ;  and  another  near 
Philadeli^hia,  in  1765-6,  in  great  time,  considering  weight,  but 
was  beat  by  the  famous  Selim,  for  500  pistoles. 

Juniper,  imported  into  Yirginia,  1761,  was  got  by  Babra- 
ham,  out  of  Aura,  by  Stamford  Turk  ;  grandam,  sister  to  Con- 
queror, by  Fox;  g.  grandam,  by  Childers, — the  dam  of  Crab, 
Snip,  Blacklegs,  &c. — Basto — Curwen's  Bay  Barb — Curwen's 
Spot — Lowther  Barb — Yintner  mare.  Juniper,  a  celebrated 
racer,  won  fourteen  out  of  eighteen  races,  running  second  in 
the  four  he  lost. 

Hopper's  imported  Pacolet,  was  got  by  Spark, — afterward 

*  1112  Delancy'a  Nettle,  by  imported  Granby,  probably  the  same  as  Heard's, 
beat  Selim,  thirteen  years  old,  and  other  famed  horses,  the  four-mile  heats,  at  An- 
napolis, vol.  1.  p.  97. 


AEIEL  S   PERFOKMANCES.  201 

imiDorted,  out  of  Queen  Mab,  also  imported  as  above.  It  would 
appear  Molly  Pacolet  was  got  by  Pacolet— son  of  Spark— out 
of  his  own  sister  by  imp.  Spark,  son  of  Honeycomb  Punch,  out 
of  Wilkes'  Old  Hautboy  mare,  "  he  was  a  present  to  Gov.  Ogle, 
of  Maryland,  from  Lord  Baltimore,*  to  whom  he  had  been  pre- 
sented by  His  Eoyal  Highness,  Frederic  Prince  of  Wales  "— 
father  to  George  III. 

Further  detail  is  wholly  unnecessary,  in  regard  to  the  residue 
of  Ariel's  pedigree,  which  rmis  to  the  early  horses  of  England 
— Arabians  and  Barbs. 

PERFORMANCES. 

Ariel  having  passed  through  many  hands  while  on  the  turf; 
and,  at  a  period,  until  her  last  year  of  racing,  when  there  was 
no  general  "Eegister"to  record  her  achievements  ;  we  have 
made  this  compilation  from  several  creditable  sources,  for  which 
we  owe  obligation ;  especially  to  "  ISTumidian,"  for  the  account 
of  her  career  in  the  South ;  and  to  Godolphin,  for  that  of  one  of 
her  splendid  achievements  at  the  I^orth.  The  Old  Turfman,  to 
whom  we  must  be  satisfied  now  to  refer,  has  already  received 
our  thanks,  and  those  of  a  grateful  community. 

1.  1825,  April.  Ariel,  three  years  old,  won  a  race  of  one 
hundred  rods,  against  an  Eclipse  filly— Flying  Dutchman's 
dam — and  a  horse  by  Duroc. 

2.  A  fortnight  after,  she  again  won  a  race  of  one  hundred 
rods,  beating  Fox  by  Duroc,  Flying  Dutchman's  dam,  and  a 
Duroc  colt.  Fox,  a  gelding  yet  on  the  turf,  was  for  many  years 
the  crack  mile  horse  of  the  JSTorth— almost  invincible  in  a  single 
mile— at  which  he  beat  the  famous  Kentucky  mile  horse  Snow 
Ball,  by  half  a  length,  at  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  in  Im.  49s. 
for  $1000.  Snow  Ball,  a  few  weeks  before,  had  beaten  the 
famed  Arietta — a  match  one  thousand  yards,  for  $1000. 

3.  Shortly  after  she  won,  mile  heats,  for  a  set  of  silver 
spoons,  beating  Fox,  Mr.  Van  Eanst's  Eclipse  colt.  Flying 
Dutchman's  dam,  and  Agnes,  by  Sir  Solomon.  Fox  being 
drawn,  Ariel  distanced  the  field  the  second  heat. 

*  Lord  Baltimore  was  about  this  period  the  leader  of  the  Prince's— the  opposi- 
tion— party  in  Parliament.— See  Walpole's  letters.  The  present  of  a  horse  so  famed 
as  Spark,  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  special  favor. 


202  THE   HORSE. 

4.  Immediately  after,  she  won  a  match  against  Mr,  John 
Stevens'  Flagellator,  then  considered  the  fastest  mile  horse  at 
the  North. 

5.  May.  Ariel  won  with  great  ease,  for  H.  Lynch,  Esq.,  a 
match  against  a  Bussorah  colt — $1000  each — two  miles. 

6.  October.  The  ensuing  autumn,  at  the  same  course,  Mr. 
Lynch  won,  with  her,  a  match,  $5000  a  side,  against  Col.  W.  R. 
Johnson's  Lafayette,  also  three-year-old,  by  Virginian — mile 
heats.  A  "  Spectator  "  differs  from  the  Old  Turfman's  account, 
— in  American  Turf  Register,  vol.  2.  p,  555 — and  thinks  Ariel 
won  with  ease,  by  four  lengths,  each  heat.  Time,  Im.  48s. — 
Im.  52s. 

7.  October.  Three  weeks  thereafter,  on  the  Union  Course, 
backed  by  other  Northern  gentlemen,  in  union  with  Messrs. 
Lynch  and  Yerplanck,  she  ran  a  match*  for  $20,000  a  side, 
three-mile  heats,  against  Gen.  Wynn's  Flirtilla,  then  five  years 
old,  and  deemed  in  the  South  to  be  superior  to  any  nag  in  the 
country — also  backed  by  Col.  Johnson  and  other  Virginia 
gentlemen.  A  severe  contest — and  won  in  three  heats.  Less 
than  six  inches  decided  the  second  heat,  and  the  issue  of  as  much 
as  $50,000.  Time,  5m.  54s. — two  last  miles,  3m.  47s. — 5m.  54s. 
— 5m.  54s. 


ARIEL  AND  FLIRTILLA  RAGE. 

By  the  Old  Turfman — ^D.  C.  Golden,   Esq. 

October  31st.     Match  for  $20,000, 
heats. 

Gen.  Wm.  Wynn's  b.  m.  Flirtilla,  by  Sir  Archy  ;  dam  by 
Robin  Redbreast ;  five  years  old  ;  113  lbs. 

Mr.  Henry  Lynch's  gr.  f.  Ariel,  by  Eclipse;  dam  by  Finan- 
cier,f  three  years  old ;  87  lbs. 

This  match  grew   out  of  a  very  extraordinary  challenge, 

*  The  match  grew  out  of  an  extraordinary  challenge  to  run  Ariel  four-mile  heats, 
against  any  nag  to  be  named,  for  $1000  on  each  turn, — four  to  a  mile, — and  $10,000, 
the  main  race.  But  for  the  mode  of  running  the  first  heat,  and  accident  in  the 
second,  the  time  would  have  been  better. 

f  For  the  full  pedigrees  of  Ariel,  Financier,  and  dam  of  Tippoo  Saib,  see  the 
preceding  pages. 


ARIEL'S    CONDITIOX.  203 

given  by  the  owner  of  Ariel,  at  the  dinner  table  in  the  club 
room,  on  the  4  th  inst.,  to  run  Ariel  four-mile  heats  ^  against 
any  nag  to  he  nanied^  for  $1,000  on  each  turn  or  qua/rter  pole, 
four  turns  to  the  mile^  and  $10,000  on  the  main  race.  This  was 
not  taken.  On  the  daj  following,  he  gave  a  second  challenge, 
to  run  Ariel  four-mile  heats,  against  any  horse,  mare  or  gelding 
that  might  then  le  named.,  that  day  six  weeks,  for  $20,000, 
which  was  accepted  by  Dr.  Wyche,  of  Korth  Carolina,  who 
najned  Flirtilla,  and  oiFered  to  increase  the  bet  to  $50,000, 
which  was  not  acceded  to.  A  gentleman  present,  confederate 
with  the  owner  of  Ariel,  a  few  minutes  afterward,  made  two 
other  bets  with  Dr.  Wyche,  of  $5,000  each ;  thus  the  match, 
although  nominally  for  $20,000,  was,  in  point  of  effect,  for 
$30,000.  By  a  subsequent  arrangement,  the  distance  was  al- 
tered from  four  to  three-mile  heats,  ^nd  the  31st  of  that  month 
— October — agreed  upon  as  the  day  of  trial.  The  gray  filly, 
which  had  been  trained  for  the  race,  between  her  and  Lafayette, 
by  Mr.  Eichard  Jackson, — who,  I  must  in  justice  say,  brought 
her  to  the  post  in  tip-top  order, — was  taken  out  of  his  hands, 
and  her  future  management,  or  preparation,  confided  to  Mr. 
Samuel  Laird,  a  trainer  of  some  experience,  whose  recent 
success  had  rendered  him  popular ;  and  Flirtilla,  who  had 
heretofore  been  trained  by  Gen.  Wynn's  black  servant  Charles, 
under  the  General's  superintendence,  was  now  put  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  William  R.  Johnson.  Ariel  also  changed  her 
rider ;  and,  in  place  of  Black  Hany,  who  had  ridden  her  ad- 
mirably against  Lafayette,  Mr.  Laird's  nephew,  Madison  Laird, 
was  chosen  as  her  jockey.     Bob  Wooden  rode  Flirtilla. 

After  the  termination  of  the  regular  purse  races,  on  the  6th 
inst.,  business  called  me  to  the  North  ;  I  did  not  return  until  the 
30th,  consequently,  had  viewed  neither  of  the  horses  during  this 
latter  part  of  their  train.  Some  of  my  friends  who  had  taken  a 
pretty  deep  interest,  were  desirous  that  I  would  examine  their 
condition  and  give  my  opinion.  Li  pursuance  of  which,  I  re- 
paired to  the  stables,  on  the  afternoon  immediately  preceding 
the  day  of  the  race,  and  was  politely  permitted,  by  the  owners 
of  the  respective  horses,  to  take  a  view.  I  found  Ariel  by  no 
means  in  the  order  to  be  desired  ;  her  coat  was  harsh,  and  her 
skin  clapped  down  tight,  exhibiting  infallible  signs  of  her  having 


204  TIIK    HOKSE. 

been  overmarked,  or  having  had  her  pores  collapsed  ;  and  I, 
without  hesitation,  told  a  friend  who  had  backed  her,  that  she 
was  wrong ;  that  whether  she  won  or  lost,  she  would  not  relieve 
herself  by  perspiring  freely,  either  while  running  or  after  the 
heat ;  that  nothing  but  an  accident  or  a  miracle  could  give  her 
the  race,  and  advised  him  to  get  his  money  off.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  coat  of  Flirtilla  had  a  satin  like-gloss ;  the  skin  when 
taken  hold  of,  showed  nothing  like  adhesion  to  the  body,  and 
handled  like  a  rich,  pliable,  yet  elastic  velvet.  She  was  drawn 
completely  into  muscle,  yet  fresh  upon  her  legs  ;  while  her  ani- 
mated countenance  gave  assurance  that  her  spirits  were  un- 
broken. 

Betting  went  on  briskly — no  odds  asked  or  given. 

At  length  the  long  and  anxiously  looked-for  day  arrived; 
and,  with  the  excej)tiou  of  the  great  match  between  Eclipse  and 
Henry,  the  course  was  never  more  thronged.  Numbers  arrived 
from  the  South,  and  the  Northern  sportsmen  were  on  the  ground 
to  a  man. 

Betting  went  on  merrily,  and  some  individuals  had  from 
$7,000  to  $15,000  at  stake. 

The  hour  of  1  was  now  at  hand,  and  the  bugle  sounded  the 
call ;  the  summons  was  obeyed.  ISText  were  heard  the  orders, 
"  saddle,"  "  mount,"  ''  come  up."  The  signal  tap  next  re- 
sounded, and  off  they  flew.  Each  presently  took  a  hard  pull, 
with  intent  to  wait  upon  his  adversary ;  but  the  light  weight 
was  unable  to  restrain  the  impetuosity  of  the  gray  filly, 
and  necessity  compelled  him  to  lead.  The  bay  mare  now 
trailed  close  in  her  rear,  and  thus  they  proceeded,  at  a  mode- 
rate rate,  to  the  end  of  the  first  round  or  mile  ;  run  in  slow 
time,  2m.  128.  Here  stood  Mr.  Johnson,  upon  whom  the 
lively  Bob  Wooden,  as  he  advanced,  fixed  an  eye,  which  quickly 
caught  the  signal  to  make  play.  He  dashed  forward,  and 
as  by  a  single  bound,  was  three  lengths  ahead,  before  young 
Laird,  taken  by  surj^rise,  could  call  out  the  filly.  Away  they 
went,  at  a  killing  pace  ;  and,  as  they  passed  round  to  the  termi- 
nation of  the  second  mile,  the  bay  mare  still  leading,  the  cry 
was,  "  Hold  her  steady,  and  let  her  go."  The  stride  was  ex- 
cessive, the  gather  quick,  the  stroke  regular;  no  floundering, 
no  laboring,  no  dwelling,  no  clambering,  nothing  abroad ;  the 


ARIEL    AND    FLIRTILLA.  205 

rate  was  tremendous ;  thus  tliey  went  along,  until  they  arrived 
at  the  middle  of  the  back  part  of  the  course,  in  the  third  or  last 
round ;  the  gray  filly  trailing  full  twenty  yards.  Here  she  let 
out,  and,  as  if  with  magic  speed,  came  up,  challenged,  and  took 
the  lead ;  all  in  a  run  of  forty  rods,  and  before  she  arrived  at 
the  half-mile  pole  of  this  last  round.  Flirtilla,  however,  fol- 
lowed in  a  determined  and  spirited  manner ;  but  Ariel  kept  up 
her  rate,  and  although  she  dropped  a  little,  coming  up  the 
stretch,  came  in  from  three  to  four  lengths  ahead. 

Time  of  running  the  1st  mile  in  this  heat,      -       -     2m.  12s. 

Time  of  running  the  two  last  miles,     -       -     -       -     3m.  47s. 


Time  of  running  the  heat, 5m.  59s. 

I  took  a  view  of  the  horses,  as  soon  as  they  were  stripped 
and  led  off  to  their  rubbing  places.  Ariel  appeared  a  little 
swollen  about  the  loins,  what  is  termed  filleted  ;  did  not  per- 
spire freely,  or  relieve  herself  as  she  ought.  Flirtilla  showed 
also  some  symptoms  of  distress ;  but  nothing  which  indicated 
being  overmarked.  The  race  I  now  considered — barring  acci- 
dents— insured  to  Flirtilla. 

Second  Heat. — Flirtilla  went  to  work  in  earnest ;  she  chal- 
lenged at  the  start,  passed  ahead,  and  kept  up  a  telling  pace ; 
Ariel  following  with  all  her  power,  but  each  round  dropping 
farther  and  farther  behind.  In  the  second  mile  it  was  evident 
that  her  chance  was  out.  Toward  the  termination  of  the  last 
mile,  when  Flirtilla  entered  upon  the  quarter  stretch,  she  had 
beaten  the  gray  filly  full  100  yards,  and  thus  far  in  advance  was 
she  when  she  passed  the  four-mile  distance,  40  rods  from  home ; 
but  as  she  neared  the  crowd,  and  had  arrived  within  20  or  25 
rods  of  the  winning  post,  became  sulky  or  restive,  refused  to 
run,  actually  braced  herself,  and  it  was  with  the  greatest  dif- 
ficulty that  her  rider  prevented  her  from  coming  to  a  full  stop. 
Young  Laird,  having  given  up  all  idea  of  winning  the  heat,  and 
intending  barely  to  drop  within  the  distance  post,  seeing  that 
something  was  the  matter,  clapped  whip  and  spur  to  the  filly, 
and  brought  her  up  at  a  rattling  pace ;  but  it  was  too  late,  the 
distance,  yet  to  be  measured,  too  short;  one  more  stride  would 


206  THE    HORSE. 

have  given  liim  the  heat.     It  was  a  hair-breadth  business ; — ad- 
judged to  Flirtilla  by  only  six  inches. 

Time,  5m.  54^s. 

Two  to  one  on  Flu-tilla. 

Third  Heat. — It  was  now  evident  that  Flirtilla  had  the  field 
at  command,  and  that  nothing,  save  her  restiveness,  left  any 
chance  to  Ariel.  At  the  summons  they  both  took  their  stations, 
and  the  signal  being  given,  went  off  at  a  rattling  pace ;  Flir- 
tilla taking  the  lead,  and  keeping  on  at  a  life  or  death -like  pace, 
apparently  determined  neither  to  give  nor  receive  quarter.  Bob 
Wooden  had  orders  to  keep  her  steadily  on,  and  he  did  so ; 
gradually  dropping  the  filly,  who  in  the  second  round,  was  dead 
beat.  She,  however,  kept  up  a  hopeless  struggle  to  the  last, 
falling  in  the  rear  full  100  yards. 

Thus  terminated  a  match,  twice  lost  to  the  Northern  sports- 
men, which  proper  preparation,  or  good  management,  would 
have  given  them.  So  much  for  changing  a  successful  trainer 
and  rider.  The  epitaph,  "  I  was  well  and  wished  to  be  better — 
took  physic,  and  here  I  am,"  was  never  more  fully  verified  than 
in  this  case. 

An  Old  Turfjian. 


Mk.  Editor  ; 

"An  Old  Turfman"  is  mistaken  in  supposing  that  Ariel  beat 
Flirtilla  the  first  heat,  in  their  match,  more  than  a  neck.  Both 
of  them  came  in  under  whip  and  spur.  The  crowd  prevented 
my  seeing,  when  Ariel  obtained  the  lead  in  the  last  round,  but 
I  did  not  see  her  more  than  half  a  length  ahead.  Between  the 
distance  and  the  winning  stand  Flirtilla  gained  from  the  girth  to 
the  shoulders.*  Ariel  was  on  the  outside  on  coming  in — a 
strong  proof  that  she  had  not  cleared  Flirtilla,  on  getting  the 
lead. 

Had  Flirtilla  run  from  the  start,  or  made  her  run  a  little 
sooner,  she  would  have  taken  the  heat ;  and  it  is  believed  would 
have  won  the  match  that  day,  even  though  the  race  had  been 
two-mile  heats  instead  of  three.     Ariel  on  no  occasion  showed 

*  Com.  Ridgely  was  in  the  winning  stand  at  the  race,  and  will  no  doubt  confirm 
mv  vccollections. 


HER   FOUR-YEAR-OLD    RACES.  207 

more  speed,  if  slie  was  in  other  respects  amiss.  Had  "  An  Old 
Turfman"  examined  the  condition  of  Vanity  in  her  match  with 
Count  Piper,  he  would  have  discovered  she  was  in  worse  order, 
and  that  was  not  ascribable  to  her  trainer. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  this  correction  may  not  be  unacceptable  to 
"  An  Old  Turfman,"  but  that  he  will  continue  his  valuable  com- 
mimications.  Should  there  be  mistakes,  the  correction  may  be 
made.     Good  racing  deserves  good  descriptions,  such  as  his. 

One  of  the  Judges. 

She  was  now  purchased  by  gentlemen  of  the  South,  and 
placed  in  Gen.  Wynn's  stable. 

8.  1826.  April.  At  Belfield,  Yirginia,  she  was  beaten  by 
Col.  Johnson's  Shakspeare,  four  years  old,  by  Yirginian,  for 
the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  three-mile  heats.  Was  probably 
too  high. 

9.  May.  At  N'ewmarket,  she  won  the  post  stake  $400,  three- 
mile  heats,  beating  Mr.  Field's  Mark  Time,  four  years  old,  by 
Gallatin — a  very  superior  three-mile  horse — in  fine  style  and 
time ;  but  we  are  unable  to  furnish  particulars.  iNext  week 
Mark  Time  won  the  three-mile  heat  in  the  best  time  known  at 
Tree  Hill. 

10.  At  Tree  Hill,  the  next  week,  she  won  with  ease  the 
Jockey  Club  purse,  $1000,  beating  Mr.  Field's  Gohanna— the 
first  race  he  lost — Col.  Johnson's  Betsey  Eichards,  and  Mr.  Har- 
rison's Frantic.  Time,  8m.  Ys.— 8m.  2s.  The  preceding  week 
at  Kewmarket,  Gohanna  and  Betsey  Richards  had  been  winners, 
both  running  severe  races,  of  twelve  miles,  beating  Flirtilla, 
Shakspeare,  Janet,  and  others. 

11.  At  Nottoway,  the  following  week,  she  won  the  Jockey 
Club  purse,  $400,  four-mile  heats,  beating  Gohanna  again,  with 
others. 

12.  September.  At  Nottoway,  she  won  with  ease,  in  one 
heat,  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  four-mile  heats,  beating  Col. 
Johnson's  Shakspeare. 

13.  At  Broad  Rock,  she  won  with  great  ease,  the  Jockey 
Club  purse,  $500,  three-mile  heats. 

14.  October.  At  Newmarket,  the  next  week,  she  won  clev- 
erly the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $600,  four-mile  heats,  beating  Mr. 


208  THE    HOKSE. 

Botts's  Phillis — own   sister  to  Golianna — and    Col.  Jolinson's 
Betsey  Arclier. 

15.  At  Tree  Hill,  the  week  following,  she  ran  second  to  the 
famous  Monsieur  Tonson,  four  years  old,  by  Pacolet,  for  tlie 
Jockey  Club  purse,  won  cleverly  in  two  heats.  Mr.  Botts's  Go- 
lianna distanced.  Monsieur  Tonson  trailed  Ariel,  the  first  heat, 
until  the  last  quarter,  when  in  passing,  the  saddle  of  Ariel  hav- 
ing slipped,  she  had  to  give  up  the  contest ;  the  second  heat 
was  run  in  the  same  way,  and  Monsieur  Tonson,  to  general 
astonishment,  won  by  more  than  a  clear  length.  Time,  8m.  48. — 
7m.  57s. — the  best  time  at  Tree  Hill,  excepting  the  second  heat, 
won  the  preceding  year,  by  Phillis,  in  7m.  56s.,  closely  contested 
by  Betsey  Pobinson,  winner  of  the  race,  and  the  second  heat, 
also  in  7m.  56s.,  won  by  Yirginia  Lafayette  beating  Flirtilla  and 
Marion. 

16.  At  Belfield,  the  succeeding  fortnight,  she  was  again 
beaten  by  Monsieur  Tonson,  in  a  Jockey  Club  race,  three-mile 
heats,  an  extremely  interesting  race  of  three  heats — Sally  Walker 
won  the  first  heat — Lafayette  also  in  the  race — said  to  have 
been  well-contested  and  run  in  fine  time  ;  but  we  regret  being 
unable  to  gwQ  f  mother  particulars. 

17.  IS'ovember.  At  Halifax,  IST.  C,  the  next  week,  she  was 
beaten  by  Monsieur  Tonson,  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $400, 
three-mile  heats.  Two  weeks  after  at  Boydton,  was  run  the 
memorable  race  between  Monsieur  Tonson  and  Sally  Walker, 
"  the  best  four-mile  race,"  all  things  considered,  ever  run  in 
America — won  cleverly  by  the  former — his  last  race  but  one — 
in  7m.  55s.  and  7m.  54s. 

18.  1827.  January.  Ariel  was  next  travelled  to  Augusta, 
Georgia,  where  she  won  easily  the  Jockey  Club  pui-se,  $500, 
four-mile  heats. 

19.  February.  She  travelled  thence  to  Charleston,  S.  C, 
where  she  received  tlie  amount  of  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $600, 
being  withdrawn  in  favor  of  Ked  Gauntlet,  the  ostensible  win- 
ner. 

20.  Next  day  she  won  the  $400  purse,  three-mile  heats. 

21.  Two  days  after,  the  handicap  purse,  $400,  three-mile 
heats. 

Thus  running  as  a  four-year  old,  fifteen  races — two  in  one 


FTVE-TEAE-OLD    RACES.  209 

week — of  wliich  she  won  eleven  and  lost  but  four — three  to  the 
famous  Monsieur  Tonson,  and  one  to  Shakspeare,  whom  she  af- 
terward beat. 

22.  May.  At  Kewmarket,  Ariel,  now  five  years  old,  won 
the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $600,  four-mile  heats,  beating  with  ease, 
Maid  of  Lodi,  Atalanta  and  Phillis.     Time,  7m.  58s. — 8m.  8s. 

After  this  race,  $2000  was  given  by  Mr.  Wyche  for  six 
weeks'  use  of  Ariel. 

23.  At  Tree  Hill,  the  next  week,  she  won  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  $1000,  with  a  post  stake  $500,  each  four  subscribers,  mak- 
ing the  sum  of  $3000,  four-mile  heats,  beating  with  ease  Mr. 
Botts's  Gohanna,  the  famed  Sally  McGee,  and  Maid  of  Lodi. 
— Monsieur  Tonson,  calculated  upon  in  the  race,  had  broken 
down,  and  Sally  Walker  had  gone  to  the  Union  Course,  where, 
in  three  four-mile  heats,  she  beat  Lance — own  brother  to  Ariel — 
and  Janet,  own  sister  to  Sir  Charles.  Track  excessively  heavy — 
at  places  near  knee-deep  with  mud  and  water. 

24.  At  Broad  Rock,  the  week  following,  she  won  the  Jockey 
Club  purse,  $500,  beating  Lafayette  and  others. 

25.  At  Norfolk,  the  next  week,  she  won  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  $500,  four-mile  heats,  beating  Gohanna  and  the  cele- 
brated Sally  Hope,  four  years  old,  by  Sir  Archy — track  also 
very  deep.  The  defeat  of  the  latter  has  been  ascribed  to  the 
state  of  the  course.     See  her  memoir,  American  Turf  Register. 

26.  June.  At  Nottoway,  shortly  thereafter,  she  won  the 
Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  three-mile  heats,  beating  Gohanna, 
Sally  McGee,  Red  Gauntlet  and  others.  A  capital  race.  Go- 
hanna ran  in  reserve  the  first  heat,  won  in  5m.  50s.,  and  closely 
contested  the  next,  an  uncommonly  severe  heat,  won  in  5m.  46s. 

Thus  Ariel,  in  one  campaign,  won  all  her  five  Jockey  Club 
races,  three  of  them  four-mile  heats ;  beating  most  of  the  best 
horses — without  taking  into  consideration  the  three  races,  won 
a  few  months  before  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  Having 
previously  passed  through  several  hands,  the  veteran  Wynn  be- 
ing dead,  Ariel  was  now  bought  for  $1600,  by  his  nephew.  Col. 
"Wm.  "Wynn. 

2Y.  September.  At  Broad  Rock,  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse, 
$500,  three-mile  heats,  Ariel  was  beaten,  in  a  severely  con- 
tested race,  by  Sally  Walker,  five  years  old,  by  Timoleon ;  but 
Vol.  L— 14 


210  THE   HORSE. 

beat,  in  both  heats,  Lafayette  and  another.  Sally  Walker  was 
comparatively  fresh,  having  run  but  one  race  in  the  spring, 
which  she  won  with  ease — though  in  three  heats — and  was 
then  declared  to  be  the  best  nag  from  the  South,  that  had  ever 
been  introduced  on  the  Union  Course.  Ariel  was  not  in  condi- 
tion— too  high ;  nor  did  she  get  exactly  "  in  fix  "  during  the 
campaign.  The  time  of  this  race  is  the  best  on  our  records, 
5m.  44-s. — 5m.  42s. 

28.  At  ISTewmarket,  the  next  week,  she  was  beaten  easily, 
by  Sally  Walker,  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $600,  four-mile 
heats. 

29.  October.  At  Tree  Hill,  the  following  week,  she  won 
the  post  stakes,  $450,  a  single  four  miles,  beating  Col.  John- 
son's famed  Trumpator,  four  years  old,  by  Sir  Solomon,  and 
others. 

30.  At  l!^ottoway,  the  next  week,  she  won  with  ease  the 
Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  three-mile  heats,  beating  Col.  John- 
son's famed  Medley,  three  years  old,  by  Sir  Hal,  in  one  heat. 

31.  At  Belfield,  the  week  following,  she  was  beaten  by 
Sally  Walker,  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  three-mile 
heats.  An  uncommonly  severe  race — scarce  a  shade  of  difier- 
ence  between  them.     Time,  5m.  46s. — 5m.  48s. 

32.  November.  At  Halifax,  N.  C,  she  was  again  beaten, 
the  succeeding  week,  by  Sally  Walker,  for  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  $400,  four-mile  heats. 

33.  At  Scotland  Neck,  a  few  weeks  after,  she  won  the 
Jockey  Club  purse. 

34.  1828.  January.  She  was  then  travelled  to  Augusta, 
Georgia,  where  she  won  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $500,  four- 
mile  heats,  beating  Col.  Myers'  Lady  Deerpond  and  others. 

35.  February.  Thence  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  where  she  was 
beaten  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $600,— and  a  bet  of  $1000, 
— four-mile  heats,  by  Mr.  Singleton's  Crusader,  four  years  old, 
by  Sir  Archy.  A  good  race — lost  the  second  heat  by  scarce 
two  feet.     Time  not  known. 

36.  A  few  days  thereafter,  she  won  the  handicap  purse, 
$400,  beating  Crusader,  who  broke  down  in  the  first  heat, 
and  another. 


SIX-YEAR-OLD    RACES.  211 

Thus,  as  a  five-year-old,  Ariel  ran  again  fifteen  races  in  one 
year,  of  which  she  lost  only  five. 

37.  April.  At  Belfield,  she  won  the  Proprietor's  purse, 
$200,  two-mile  heats,  beating  Peggy  Madee,  by  Sir  Hal,  a 
famed  two-mile  nag.  See  American  Turf  Register,  pp.  98, 
204,  252,  514,  and  560,  vol.  2. — Ariel,  now  appearing  amiss, 
Col.  Wynn  was  induced  to  sell  her  for  $2,000,  giving  a  certifi- 
cate that,  while  owned  by  him,  "  under  a  continuation  of  one 
training,  she  ran  the  astonishing  distance  of  ninety-nine  miles, 
mostly  under  whip  and  spur — having  been  vanquished,  in 
several  contests,  perhaps  from  want  of  condition  rather  than 
talents."     See  American  Turf  Register,  vol.  4,  p.  495. 

38.  May.  At  JSTewmarket,  she  was  beaten,  for  the  Pro- 
prietor's purse,  $300,  three-mile  heats — well  contested — ^by 
Col.  Johnson's  Medley,  four  years  old.  Each  heat  ran  in 
6m.  49s. 

39.  At  Tree  Hill,  the  next  week,  she  won  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  $1000,  four-mile  heats,  beating  Red  Murdoch — who  had 
beat  Medley,  the  three-year-old  sweepstakes  at  Newmarket — 
and  Sally  McGee.  Medley,  expected  to  have  run  in  this  race, 
had  fallen  lame  and  never  ran  again. 

40.  At  Broad  Rock,  the  following  week,  she  won  with  ease 
the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $500,  three  mile  heats. 

41.  At  Norfolk,  the  next  week,  she  won  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  $600,  four  mile  heats. 

42.  Same  meeting,  she  won  a  handicap  race,  for  $300, 
"  best  three  out  of  five  " — mile  heats — "  won  in  three  or  four 
heats,  particulars  not  recollected." 

43.  June.  At  Boydton,  the  fortnight  after,  she  won  the 
Proprietor's  purse,  $200,  two-mile  heats. 

44.  September.  At  Norfolk,  she  won  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  $500,  four-mile  heats — a  good  race,  beating  cleverly  Col. 
Johnson's  Trumpator,  and  another. — 8m.  2s. — 7m.  43s. — ^the 
second  heat. 

45.  At  Broad  Rock,  the  next  week,  she  won  in  four  heats, 
the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $500,  three-mile  heats  ;  beating  Trum- 
pator, Lafayette  and  others — a  good  race  and  in  good  time — 
\h&  fourth  heat  in  5m.  47s. ! 

46.  October.     At  Newmarket,  the   week    succeeding,  she 


212 


THE    ilORSK. 


won  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  8600,  four-mile  heats,  heating  in 
four  heats  Trumpator,  Eed  Murdoch  and  Hypona.  Time,  8m. 
22s. — 8m.  13s. — 7m.  5Ts. — 8m.  4s. 

"  Red  Murdoch  won  the  first  heat,  in  8m.  22s.  ;  Ariel  and 
Trumpator  both  in  reserve.  Ai-iel  took  the  second  heat,  with 
great  ease,  in  8m.  13s.  Intense  interest  was  excited  at  the 
prospect  of  a  severe  sti'uggle  for  the  third  heat—that  to  an  ob- 
servant eye  seemed  inevitable.  Trumpator,  who  in  many  a  well 
disputed  field  had  earned  distinguished  honor,  and  more  than 
once  excited  the  apprehensions  of  his  formidable  adversary, 
had  yet  made  no  eftbrt  in  the  race ;  and  was  in  the  hands  of  a 
most  skilful,  deliberate,  and  experienced  turfite.  It  was  ob- 
vious he  alone  attracted  the  notice  of  his  fair  adversary,  and 
that  the  tug  of  war  could  no  longer  be  postponed.  Never  were 
anticipations  more  fully  realized  ;  never  was  reputation  more 
nobly  sustained.  From  tlie  onset  both  pressed  forward,  with  a 
desperate  rush,  and  maintained  a  severe  and  ceaseless  press 
throughout  the  entire  heat.  For  the  four  miles,  the  whip  nor 
spur  were  idle ;  for  three  and  a  half  it  was  impossible  to  con- 
jecture the  result — when  Trumpator  gained  a  slight,  but  preca- 
rious ascendency,  which,  with  great  difficulty,  he  maintained  to 
the  close,  coming  in  a  few  feet  ahead — winning  mie  of  the  best 
heats  ever  done  at  Newmarket,  and  perhaps  the  vei'y  best  third 
heat  ever  run  in  this  hemisphere,  or  any  where  else.  Time, 
Tm.  5Ts. 

"  The  readiness  with  which  both  recovered  and  '  cooled 
off,'  surprised  those  most  familiar  with  the  turf.  In  a  short 
while  both  were  prepared  for  the  decisive  engagement.  At  the 
sound  of  the  trumpet  the  ardent  competitors  appeared,  for  the 
fourth  time,  at  the  goal — eager  for  the  conflict.  At  the  word  they 
pressed  forward  with  desperate  efforts — both  conscious  that  the 
slightest  advantage  must  prove  decisive,  in  a  contest  of  such 
equal  powers.  For  a  mile  and  a  half  their  prospects  were  alike ; 
Ariel  now  gained  some  advantage — ^Trumpator  strained  every 
nerve — they  are  again  locked,  and  all  as  doubtful  as  ever.  On 
they  fly — urged  by  every  persuasive — ever  and  anon  fiercely 
called  upon,  and  at  every  call  found  worthy  of  almost  bound- 
less confidence.  In  the  third  round,  victory  inclined  to  Trum- 
pator— he  gradually  cleared  his  opponent — light  appeared  be- 


CONTEST    WITH    TRUMP ATOE.  213 

tween  them.  But  the  spirit  of  Ariel  was  unsubdued,  and  her 
efforts  unabated.  She  firmly  maintained  the  arduous  struggle 
— half  a  mile  more,  they  were  again  '  side  by  side ' — not  con- 
tent, she  still  pressed  forward  and  regained  her  lost  place.  On 
closing  the  mile  she  had  gained  the  track  and  swept  around  the 
turn  '  nose  and  tail.'  Up  the  back  stretch  continued  a  tremen- 
dous struggle — Ariel  still  maintaining  the  lead — ^but,  in  making 
the  sweep  of  the  last  tui^n,  the  prospects  of  Trumpator  seemed 
to  brighten — ^he  closed  in  and  entered  the  quarter  stretch  '  nose 
and  nose,'  Intense  interest  was  at  its  height — when  the  for- 
tunes of  Ai-iel  decided  the  conflict — having  the  track  and  the 
firmest  ground,  Ariel  beat  him  down  the  stretch,  at  her  utmost 
speed,  by  only  a  few  feet — closing  the  race,  and  bearing  off  her 
well  earned  laurels,  in  8m.  4s. — after  one  of  the  most  arduous 
contests  ever  kno-svu, — amid  the  acclamations  of  the  multitude. 
— '  I  saw  Hemy  *  do  the  first  heat,  with  Betsey  Richards  on 
his  haunches,  in  7m.  54s.,  and  repeated  it  in  7m.  oSs. — the  best 
four-mile  heats  ever  run  at  !N^ewmarket." 

We  regret  our  limits  have  compelled  us  to  abridge  the 
account  furnished  by  om*  valued  correspondent  "  Numidiajj^^." 

Kumidian  might  also  have  said,  that  the  last  heat  was  the 
best  fourth  heat  "  ever  run,"  in  any  quarter  of  the  world — 8m. 
4s. ! — 20s.  better  than  Eclipse's  third  heat  with  Henry,  when 
both  were  at  their  utmost  speed  ;  but  the  rate  of  their  first  and 
second  heat  "  toldy 

47.  At  Tree  Hill,  the  next  week,  for  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  SljOOO,  four-mile  heats,  all  her  older  competitors  being 
beaten  off  or  broke  down,  Kate  Kearney  and  Star,  two  extra- 
ordinary three-years-old,  only  entered  the  lists  with  her — it  was 
"gold  to  copper"  on  Ariel,  notwithstanding  her  severe  race 
of  sixteen  miles  the  preceding  week.  She  led  off,  in  good 
style,  trailed  by  the  others.  Star,  dm-ing  the  first  three  miles, 
made  unavailing  efforts  for  the  lead,  and  then  fell  back  far  in 
the  rear — Kate  Kearney  still  trailing — until,  on  entering  the 
quarter  stretch,  with  an  unexpected  burst,  she  went  ahead  and 
won  the  heat  in  7m.  59s.     Notwithstanding  the  loss  of  a  heat, 

*  This  performance  being  compared  with  Henry's  on  the  same  course,  when  run 
at  his  best  speed,  in  the  very  zenith  of  his  fame,  leaves  scarce  a  doubt  that  Ariel 
was  fully  equal  to  him  or  Eclipse,  in  their  best  days. 


214  THK    HORSE. 

Ariel  was  still  the  favorite ;  and  led  gallantly  in  the  second 
heat,  as  before — but  near  its  close  was  passed  by  both  her 
competitors,  Kate  Kearney  again  winning  in  fine  style ;  the 
others  near  at  hand.  A  capital  race.  The  second  heat — only 
two  seconds  more  than  the  first — 8m.  Is. — the  two  heats  two 
seconds  quicker  than  Monsieur  Tonson's  fine  race  at  Tree  Hill 
— and  excellent  time,  for  the  course. 

Kate  Kearney — since  so  celebrated — the  preceding  week, 
at  Newmarket,  had  won  a  great  sweepstakes,  in  good  time, 
beating  Slender  and  another;  and  two  days  before  her  race 
with  Ariel,  had  won  another,  two-mile  heats,  in  the  best  time 
at  Tree  Hill,  3m,  57s.  and  3m.  50s. — the  second  heat — beating 
Slender,  Waxy  and  another.  Slender,  the  next  day  after  her 
sweepstakes,  won  the  Proprietor's  purse,  two-mile  heats,  beat- 
ing Lafayette,  Caswell,  Susan  Robinson,  Sally  Drake  and  an- 
other, in  3m.  56s.,  and  3m.  52s.  Star,  a  few  weeks  before,  at 
Norfolk,  had  run  a  severe  second  heat  of  two  miles,  with  Polly 
Hopkins,  in  3m.  4:2s. — the  best  time  over  that  course,  twenty- 
nine  yards  short  of  a  mile. 

48.  At  Belfield,  the  week  after  her  Tree  Hill  race,  Ariel 
won  the  Proprietor's  purse,  $200,  two-mile  heats  ;  Polly  Hop- 
kins, three  years  old,  won  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  three- 
mile  lieats,  the  preceding  day,  and  the  next  week  at  New  Hope, 
the  Proprietor's  purse,  $250. 

49.  November.  At  New  Hope,  Halifax  county,  N.  C, 
Ariel  closed  her  career  in  the  "  race-horse  region,"  by  winning 
Ihc  Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  three-mile  heats. 

March,  1829,  she  was  purchased  of  David  Branch,  Esq., 
and  passed  into  the  hands  of  Hamilton  Wilkes,  Esq.,  who 
travelled  her  the  entire  distance  to  New  York  by  land,  about 
400  miles,  and  renewed  her  exploits  in  the  land  of  her  birth — 
leaving  the  late  scenes  of  her  glory  to  her  successors  in  fame — 
Kate  Kearney,  Polly  Hopkins,  Slender  and  Star.  Of  the 
twelve  races  she  ran  as  a  six-year-old,  Ariel  won  ten;  and  waS' 
obviously  out  of  condition  in  the  two  she  lost,  won  by  Medley 
and  Kate  Kearney. 

50.  May  12.  At  the  Union  Course,  Long  Island,  N.  Y., 
the  first  spring  meeting,  Ariel,  now  seven  years  old,  was  beat 
by  the  famed  gr.  m.  Betsey  Eansom,  five  years  old,  by  Yir- 


A  RTRT.    Ai^D   BETSEY    KANSOM.  215 

ginian,  in  a  well  contested  race,  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse, 
four-mile  heats.     Time,  Tm.  57s. — 8m.  7s. 

51.  May  26.  At  the  same  place,  at  the  second  meeting,  a 
fortnight  after,  she  was  in  like  manner  again  beaten  by  Betsey 
Eansom,  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  fom--mile  heats.  Time, 
7m.  52s.— 8m.  Is. 

52.  June.  At  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  the  next  week,  Ariel 
beat  Betsey  Eansom,  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse,  $500,  four- 
mile  heats,  in  7m.  52s.— 8m.  Is.— but  of  the  third  heat,  the 
time  is  wanting.  "We  are  happy  to  annex  the  following  ani- 
mated account  of  this  interesting  race,  from  the  pen  of  a  valued 
correspondent,  who  both  writes  and  runs  his  horses,  "  con 
am  ore." 

"  Since  the  contest  between  Eclipse  and  Henry,  in  1823,  no 
race — at  the  ISTorth — has  excited  so  intense  an  interest  in  the 
spectators,  as  the  one  run  by  Ariel  and  Betsey  Eansom,  on  the 
Dutchess  Course,  on  Tuesday  last.  In  two  prior  trials  at  Long 
Island,  on  the  12th  and  26th  of  May,  Betsey  Eansom — conti-ary 
to  the  expectations  of  many — ^had  proved  victorious.  The 
friends  of  Ariel,  though  somewhat  consoled  by  her  gallant  per- 
formance on  the  26th,  had  been  again  disappointed. — ^Mem. 
Saw  her  entered  for  this  last  encounter,  with  reluctance,  from 
feeling  how  little  chance  there  was  of  regaining  her  lost  laurels. 
The  earnest  solicitation  of  a  friend,  joined  to  an  anxious  wish 
to  gratify  the  inhabitants  of  his  own  country,  decided  her 
owner  to  start  her,  on  this  occasion. 

"  When  they  were  led  upon  the  ground,  the  appearance  of 
the  two  differed  as  widely  as  their  prospects — the  firm,  elastic 
reaching  step,  the  fiery  eye  and  lofty  bearing  of  Betsey,  gave 
assurance  of  condition,  and  showed  her  conscious  of  her  powers 
and  confident  of  victory — while  the  short  and  stiffened  gait, 
the  quiet  and  determined  countenance  of  Ariel — reversing  the 
quondam  appearance,  together  with  the  fate  of  herself  and 
Flirtilla — seemed  plainly  to  say,  '  I  have  lost  my  station  as  first 
among  the  fieet  ones  of  my  race,  but  I  will  regain  it  or  die.' 
They  started — Betsey  Eansom  went  off  on  the  lead,  at  a  mode- 
rate pace,  appearing  resolved  to  do  no  more  than  was  necessary 
— when,  at  the  end  of  the  two  miles  she  broke  away,  as  from 
mere  whim,  at  such  a  gait  and  at  such  a  stride,  as  would  have 


216  THE    HORSE. 

rendered  useless  to  Ariel  the  wings  of  her  gallant  namesake. 
Her  ultimate  exertions  could  only  bring  her  within  three  or 
four  lengths  of  this  kill-devil,  at  the  winning  post.  Tlie  heat 
was  run  in  7m.  52s. ,  the  last  two  miles  in  3m.  52s. 

"  The  loss  of  the  heat  rendered  the  prospects  of  Ariel  still 
more  gloomy,  and  the  chance  of  winning  so  desperate,  that  it 
was  determined  to  withdraw  her — this  was  on  the  point  of  be- 
ing announced,  when,  as  the  groom  was  leading  up  Betsey  to 
receive  the  award  of  victory,  the  experienced  eye  of  Ariel's 
trainer,  detected  in  Betsey  Eansom  some  indication  of  sorrow — 
there  were  three  or  four  minutes  to  spare — he  hastily  threw  on 
his  saddle,  and  started  her.  Betsey  again  took  the  lead,  at  a 
pace  so  rapid,  that  it  gave  lier  long  and  silvery  tail  the  appear- 
ance of  a  meteor  streaming  in  the  wind ;  for  three  miles  she 
kept  frolicking  on — sometimes  breaking  away  and  making  a 
gap,  that  seemed  to  say,  '  I  will  punish  you,  dainty  spirit  of 
the  air,  for  your  presumption,  by  leaving  you  without  the  dis- 
tance ' — and  again  waiting  for  her,  as  if  repenting  so  harsh  a 
purpose.  In  the  mean  time,  Ariel  went  steadily  on,  at  a  gait 
that  did  not  vary,  except  once  in  the  second  mile — when  in 
changing  her  feet  she  threw  her  rider  forward  and  lost  eight  or 
ten  yards,  by  the  falter ;  at  the  end  of  three  miles  and  a  quar- 
ter, Betsey  found  Ariel  within  a  yard  of  her — in  another  instant 
alongside — now  came  a  struggle  for  the  track,  desperate  and 
determined.  It  created  an  interest  so  deep,  and  a  silence  so 
profound,  that  one  might  almost  hear  the  hearts  of  the  multi- 
tude beat — it  could  not  last  long — at  the  end  of  a  straight  quar- 
ter, Ariel  has  the  track.  '  Ariel  is  ahead,'  was  thundered  out 
with  a  shout  that  would  have  waked  the  soundest  sleeper 
of  the  seven.  There  was  a  half  a  mile  yet  to  go.  Ariel 
keeps  the  track — no  time  to  lose — one  short  half  mile,  one 
short  minute  more,  Ariel  may  pluck  a  laurel  from  her  wreath, 
that  she  must  regain,  or  unbind  her  brows.  They  turned  down 
the  straight  side  of  the  last  quarter,  Ariel  half  her  length 
ahead — neither  rider  had  a  whijD,  from  an  idea  of  its  useless- 
ness — they  are  at  the  distance  post,  side  by  side — what  would 
not  have  been  given  for  a  whip — a  whip — a  whip — the  result 
upon  a  whip — a  single  stroke  might  decide  upon  it.     Betsey's 


BETSEY    RANSOM.  21Y 

rider  uses  liis  hand,  but  it  will  not  do — Ariel  wins  the  heat  by 
half  a  neck,  in  8m.  Is.,  amidst  the  cheers  of  thousands. 

"In  half  an  hour  they  again  started  to  determine  the  third 
and  last  heat.  Betsey  had  lost  her  taste  for  frolicking,  and 
went  steadily  but  rapidly  on,  with  Ariel  only  a  length  behind, 
for  three  miles  and  a  quarter;  here  Ariel  made  a  run  and 
j)assed  her — taking  and  keeping  the  lead  by  two  or  three 
lengths,  to  the  winning  post — thus  regaining  her  lost  laurels, 
and  proving  herself  to  tliis  '  out  and  outer,'  what  the  best  judge 
in  the  Union  pronounced  her — '  a  truly  formidable  race- 
horse.' *  GODOLPHIN." 

Gray  filly  Betsey  Eansom,  by  Yirginian,  October,  1827, 
on  the  Union  Course,  at  three  yeai'S  old,  won  the  Jockey  Club 
purse,  four-mile  heats,  distancing  Sir  Lovell,  Count  Piper,  Lady 
riirt,t  and  Valentine — Stevens'  Janet  drawn  after  the  first 
heat — in  a  most  extraordinary  manner,  the  second  heat.  'Next 
week  she  won  the  four-mile  heats  purse,  near  Baltimore,  with 
great  ease ;  and  tlie  week  succeeding  the  same  at  I^orfolk,  at 
three  heats,  contending  for  each,  that  were  won  in  7m.  50s. — 
7m.  45s.  and  7m.  50s. — 25s.  better  than  the  Eclipse  match,  but 
with  a  difierence  of  the  course — twenty-nine  yards  short  of  a 
mile.  She  gathered  laurels  in  Yirginia,  the  Carolinas,  Georgia, 
Maryland  and  ISTew  York — but  never  won  a  race  after  her  de- 
feat by  Ariel — she  ran  but  once  more,  the  succeeding  spring,  in 
the  sweepstakes  won  by  Col.  Johnson's  Slender,  four  miles, 
beating  also  Black  Maria — $1,000  each. 

Tlie  next  day  Ariel's  half  brother,  gray  horse  Splendid,  won 
with  ease  the  three-mile  heats,  beating  Lady  Hunter  and  an- 
other in  5m.  58a.  and  6m.  2s.  At  three  years  old.  Splendid  had 
been  beat  in  a  match  by  Col.  Johnson's  Medley. 

It  is  somewhat  surprising  that  at  this  era  so  many  of  the 
first-rate  horses  should  have  been  gray,  and  that  they  should 
have  so  frequently  contended  exclusively  with  each  other,  as 
Ariel,  Betsey  Eansom,  Medley,  Splendid,  Mark  Time,  Peggy 
Madee,  and  others-  also  in  the  south  and  west. 

*  The  time,  in  three  contests  with  Betsey  Eansom,  on  courses  better  adapted  to 
speed  than  those  at  the  South,  shows  that  Ariel  was  "below  her  mark" — probably 
considerably  "  off  her  foot." 

f  Lady  Flirt  won  the  first  heat,  contested  by  Janet  and  Count  Piper. 


218  THE    HOESE. 

53.  October.  At  Ponglikeepsie,  Ariel  won  with  ease  the 
Jockey  Chib  purse,  $500,  four-mile  heats,  beating  Light  In- 
fantry. 

54.  At  the  Union  Course,  the  next  week,  she  won  the 
Jockey  Club  purse,  $500,  four-mile  heats,  beating  her  only 
competitor  Lady  Flirt,  with  such  ease  the  first  heat,  that  slie 
was  drawn.  Lady  Flirt  had  won  the  three-mile  heats,  with 
eclat,  at  Poughkeepsie,  where  she  subsequently  beat  Black 
Maria  and  others,  thj-ee-mile  heats. 

55.  1830.  May  8.  Ariel,  now  eight  years  old,  had  been 
matched  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  ]S"ortli,  to  run  on  the  Union 
Course,  against  Col.  Johnson's  Arietta,  four  years  old,  by  Yir- 
ginian,  backed  by  him  and  others  of  tlie  South — Artel  to  carry 
100  lbs.  against  87  lbs.  two  miles,  for  $5000  aside — and  was 
beat  by  Arietta,  rather  more  than  a  length — a  good  race — sixty 
yards  more  would  j)robably  have  given  it  to  Ariel.  The  first 
mile  was  run  in  Im.  4:7s. — the  two  in  3m.  44s.  See  "  Old  Turf- 
man," p.  45,  vol.  3,  American  Turf  Eegister. 

56.  May  12.  Ariel  was  beat  the  three-mile  heats,  by  Sir 
Lovel,  six  years  old,  by  Duroc,  a  good  race,  in  which  she  was 
second — beating  Bachelor  and  Yankee  Maid.  Time,  5m.  47s. — 
6m.  53s. 

57.  May  18.  In  less  than  a  week,  Ariel  again  entered  the 
lists  with  Sir  Lovel,  at  Poughkeepsie,  destined  to  replace  tlie 
laurels  she  loses  on  the  Union  Course.  This  was  in  other  re- 
spects a  second  edition  of  her  race  with  Betsey  Eansom  on  the 
same  course.  Sir  Lovell  the  favorite,  at  one  hundred  to  thirty, 
led  off  in  gallant  style,  and  took  the  first  heat  in  7m.  54s. 
There  was  now  scarce  a  doubt  as  to  the  result.  In  the  second 
heat,  he  took  the  lead  as  before — Ariel  pressing  him  more  close- 
ly on  every  mile,  the  first  run  in  Im.  57s. — the  second  in  Ira. 
59s. — the  tliird  in  Im.  54s. — the  three  miles  in  5m.  50s. — in  a 
half  mile  more,  Ariel  is  ahead  as  in  the  former  race — but  Sir 
Lovell  gives  up.  and  Ariel  wins  it,  at  her  ease,  in  8m.  Sir  Lov- 
ell being  then  drawn,  Ariel  again  took  the  purse. 

This  was  Ariel's  last  race,  and  with  the  fame  that  Sir  Lov- 
ell subsequently  acquired,  was  of  itself  suflicient  to  establish  . 
her  fame.     Two  days  thereafter,  he  won   the  two-mile  heats, 
beating  Maryland  Ech'pse  and  Lady  Hunter,  in  3m.  50s.  and 


HER    LAST   APPEAKANCE.  219 

3m.  46s. — a  severely  contested  race.  The  next  week,  on  the 
Union  Course,  lie  beat  Arietta,  a  match,  $5,000  a  side,  two-mile 
heats,  in  3m.  45s.  and  3m.  48s. 

In  the  autumn  Ariel  was  in  training,  and  brought  to  the 
Pouglikeepsie  Course ;  but  it  does  not  appear  why  she  did  not 
run — probably  she  was  in  the  stable  with  Black  Maria,  Celeste 
and  others — the  former  now  running  her  brilliant  career,  won 
the  four-mile  heats  at  this  meeting,  in  7m.  56s. — 7m.  53s. 

"  The  veteran  Ariel  was  led  on  the  com-se  for  the  last  time, 
on  her  withdrawal  from  the  turf."  "  She  appeared  the  picture, 
the  beau  ideal  of  a  race-horse,  and  hundreds  of  amateurs 
thronged  around  her  to  take  a  parting  look  at  an  old  and  de- 
served favorite.  When  stripped  and  saddled  by  her  trainer, 
she  exhibited  all  the  fire  of  youth,  with  the  vigor  of  maturity, 
manifesting  the  most  animated  impatience,  till  a  lad  mounted 
and  galloped  her  around  the  course,  for  the  gratification  of  the 
admiring  crowd.  She  brushed  up  the  last  quarter  with  that 
inevitable  fairy  stride,  which  we  have  so  often  viewed  with  de- 
light— then  taking  leave  of  the  arena  of  her  triumphs,  she  went 
leisurely  into  a  retirement,  from  which  no  friend  could  wish  to 
recall  her,  covered  with  imperishable  laurels — the  prize  of  many 
a  hard-fought  field." 

Thus  it  appeals  Ai-iel  has  run  more  than  345  7n{l€S  in  57 
races^  of  which  she  has  won  42,*  17  of  them  four-mile  heats. 
She  has  run  every  distance,  in  nearly  the  best  time  of  the  pres- 
ent century,  and  we  believe  the  very  best  third  and  fourth  heat 
that  has  ever  heen  run.  She  has  vanquished  almost  every  horse 
of  fame  from  ISTew  York  to  Georgia,  during  the  f  five  years  she 
was  on  the  turf,  never  laying  by  nor  lame ;  and  when  beat,  al- 
ways making  good  races,  conquered  only  by  the  best  horses 
and  at  their  respective  distances ;  all  of  whom  she  beat  on  a 
second  trial,  excepting  only  Monsieur  Tonson,  Sally  Walker, 
riirtilla,  Kate  Kearney,  and  Arietta — the  three  last  she  ran 
with  but  once — and  whenev^er  beaten,  it  may  be  questionable 
whether  she  was  run  in  proper  condition.     Excepting  her  match 

*  "Imported  Citizen  won  19  races  in  England — 14  of  them  four-mile  heats — 6 
of  them  at  three  heats." 

f  See  Turf  Reg.  vol.  1,  pp.  159,  219,  283,  485,  486,  489,  491,  518,  519,  520, 
530  to  536,  566,  588.     Vol.  2,  pp.  555-6.     Vol.  3,  pp.  42,  46,  335-6,  378. 


220  THE    HORSE. 

at  three  years  old,  of  three-mile  heats,  with  the  very  best  race- 
horse then  known  on  the  turf,  she  has  never  lost  a  race  in  which 
she  won  a  heat.  She  lias  won  in  matches  and  Jockey  Club 
purses,  exclusive  of  bets,  $25,000  for  her  several  owners ;  who, 
with  scarce  an  exception,  if  any,  have  all  derived  profit  from 
her  generous  exertions. 

Her  winnings — in  number  of  races  and  distances — greatly 
surpass  any  of  which  we  have  any  account,  either  in  England 
or  America.  Rockingham,  who  heads  the  list  of  English  win- 
ners— Am.  Turf  Heg.  vol.  3,  p.  390 — was  winner  33  times ; 
her  ancestor  PotSos,  31  times ;  another  ancestor  Gimcrack — ■ 
the  severest  runner  ever  known  in  England — 28  times  out  of  37 
races  ;  Woodpecker  28,  and  imported  Buzzard  28  ;  Eleanor  * — 
grandam  of  Luzborough — winner  of  the  Derby  and  Oaks — 
consecutive  days — a  feat  performed  by  no  other — comes  nearer 
to  Ariel  in  her  performances  than  any  besides,  having  won  28 
out  of  48  races ;  Peggy,  the  mare  of  most  fame  ever  imported 
into  America — and  g.  g.  grandam  of  Tychicus,  and  of  the 
famed  Yespa,  winner  last  year  of  the  Oaks,  and  this  of  King's 
plates,  and  other  distinguished  races  in  England. — See  New 
Sporting  Magazine,  for  May  and  June,  1834 — won  22  out  of  35 
races — see  American  Turf  Register,  vol.  4,  p.  557 — imported 
Shark  19 ;  Sir  Peter  Teazle  17  ;  Florizel  16  ;  Highflyer  14 ; 
Orville — one  of  the  severest  and  best  runners  of  modern  days — 
won  about  14  races,  but  lost  as  many  ;  Dick  Andrews — also 
grandsire  to  Luzborough — won  20  out  of  27  ;  Diomed  12 ; 
Eclipse  11 ;  Matchem  10 ;  Herod  10  ;  Trumpator  10 ;  Childers 
6  or  8 ;  &c..  &c.  Of  our  horses  of  most  celebrity  few  of  them 
have  won  many  races  ;  Sir  Charles  won  20 — sometimes  shame- 
fully beaten — distanced  both  by  Sir  William  and  Eclipse — 
Timoleon  won  6 ;  Virginian  10 ;  Am.  Eclipse,  so  famed  at  the 
North,  ran  only  eight  races,  from  four  to  nine  years  old,  inclu- 
sive, and  made  but  one  very  good  race — having  beaten  second- 
rate  competitors,  or  tliose  that  had  been  worn  or  broken  down, 
until  he  encountered  Henry ;  whose  defeat  may  be  ascribable 
to   mismanagement — and   other    distinguished   horses,  Virago, 

*  Imported  Luzborougli  won  2-i  out  of  32  races,  but  never  ran  four  miles.  He 
was  five  years  on  the  turf. 


HER    UNRIYALLED    HONESTY.  221 

Gallatin,  Sir  Arcliy,  Florizel,  Pacolet,  Bertrand,  Monsieur  Ton- 
son,  Sally  Walker,  Mercmy,  &c.,  &c.,  have  run  about  tlie  same 
number.  We  have  no  recollection  of  any  other — besides  the 
famed  gelding  Leviathan,  Black  Maria,  winner  at  twenty  miles, 
and  whose  achievements  have  subsequently  been  so  splendid — 
yet  on  the  turf — her  dam  Lady  Lightfoot — -perhaps  her  grandam 
Black  Maria,  by  Shark— Polly  Hopkins,  Sally  Hope,  and  Col- 
lier— that  in  the  excellence  and  extent  of  their  running,  can  bear 
any  comparison  to  Ariel — certainly  their  superior  in  the  latter 
respect.  Of  Lady  Lightfoot  the  memoir  is  incomplete — she  won 
three  races  in  one  week  at  Charleston,  S.  C. — beat  the  best 
horses  in  excellent  time — was  on  the  turf  from  three  to  eleven 
years  old ;  but  a  great  portion  of  the  time  running  with  second- 
rate  or  broken-down  horses — she  may  have  won  thirty  races  ; 
Polly  Hopkins,  from  three  to  six  years  old,  won  23  out  of  30 
races ;  winning  all  her  seven  races  the  fall  she  was  three  years 
old,  and  beating  tlie  best  horses,  in  the  best  time ;  Sally  Hope, 
from  three  to  seven,  won  22  out  of  27  races  ;  18  or  19  of  them 
in  succession,  to  the  close  of  her  career,  beating  the  best  horses, 
also  in  the  best  time.     See  Am.  Turf  Reg.  vol.  3,  p.  452. 

In  taking  leave  of  the  famed  Ariel,  with  this  exposition,  we 
conceive  ourselves  justified  in  admitting  her  claims  to  an  illus- 
trious lineage,  and  to  our  admiration,  for  performances  that  we 
think  'unjyaralleled  on  the  pages  of  racing  annals. — American 
Turf  Register^  vol.  vi.,  j^o.  1. 


PEDIGREE, 

CHARACTERISTICS  AND  PERFORMANCES  OF  BLACK  MARIA. 

The  distinguished  subject  of  this  memoir  was  bred  bj  Charles 
Henry  Hall,  Esq.,  of  Harlem,  N.  Y.,  and  was  foaled  on  the  15th 
of  June,  1826.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  months  she  was  pur- 
chased by  John  C.  Stevens,  Esq.,  of  this  city,  for  $1,000,  and 
remained  in  his  hands  during  the  whole  of  her  long  and  brilliant 
racing  career.  She  was  got  by  American  EcliiJse,  out  of 
Lady  Lightfoot,  by  Sir  Archy — grand  dam  Black  Maria  by  Imp. 
Shark — g.  g.  dam — the  dam  of  Yingt'un — a  celebrated  race 
mare  by  Imp.  Clockfast,  a  half-brother  to  Medley,  by  Gimcrack 
— g-  g.  g.  dam  Burwell's  Maria  by  Regulus,  etc. 

Did  our  limits  allow,  we  would  gladly  devote  a  few  columns 
to  the  history  of  the  illustrious  ancestry  of  the  subject  of  this 
memoir,  but  with  the  intention  of  making  it  the  theme  of  ano- 
ther article  at  no  distant  day,  we  proceed  to  the  discussion  of 
the  matter  before  us.  We  will  remark,  however,  en  passant^ 
that  Lady  Lightfoot,  the  dam  of  Black  Maria,  was  the  most 
distinguished  racer  of  her  day,  having  won  between  twenty  and 
thirty  races,  the  majority  at  four-mile  heats,  and  never  having 
been  beaten  but  once,  except  in  her  old  age — her  eleventh  year 
— and  then  by  Eclipse,  on  the  Union  Course.  She  was  bred  by 
the  late  Colonel  John  Tayloe,  of  Va.,  and  was  foaled  at  Mr. 
Ogle's  seat,  Bel- Air,  Pr.  George's  county,  Md.,  in  June,  1812. 
She  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Hall  in  1824,  of  Major  Wm.  Jones, 
of  Oyster  Bay,  Long  Island,  and  the  late  Dr.  Alexander  Hosack, 
of  this  city,  for  $1,500,  with  a  bay  filly  at  her  foot.     This  filly, 


LADY    LIGHTFOOt's    STOCK.  223 

called  Camilla,  died  January  5,  1825.     Lady  Lightfoot  subse- 
quently produced, 

1825— Bl.  c.  Eclipse  Lightfoot,  by  Am.  EcUpse  ;  sold  at  4  yrs.  old  for  $1,500,  to  a 

Co.  in  N.  J. 
1826— Bl.  f.  Black  Maria,   by  Eclipse,  the  subject  of  this  memoir;  sold  at  12  yrs. 

old  for  §4,000. 
1821 — Missed  to  Eclipse. 
1828— Ch.  f.  Screamer,  by  Henry  ;  sold  at  17  months  old  to  W.  Livingston,   Esq., 

for  $500. 
1829— Br.  c.  Terror,  by  Eclipse ;  sold  at  7  months  old  to  the  same  gentleman  for 

$1,000. 
1830— Bl.  c.  Shark,    by  Eclipse  ;  sold  while  on  the  turf  to  J.  C.  Craig,  Esq.,  for 

$17,500. 
183l_B.  f.  Bay  Maria,  by  Echpse  ;  sold  at  4  yrs.  old  to  Colonel  W.  Hampton,  of 

S.  C,  for  $5,000. 
1832 — Missed  to  Imp.  Serab. 

1833— Bl.  f.  Harlem  Lass,  by  Shark,  her  brother,  )        Still  owned  by  Mr.  Hall ; 
1834 — B.  f.  Young  Lady  Lightfoot,  by  Eclipse,        )  the  first  has  never  been  trained. 

Lady  Lightfoot  died  from  the  effects  of  a  violent  cold,  two 
days  after  the  last  named  filly  was  foaled.  Of  the  sire  of  Black 
Maria — Eclipse — or  of  the  sire  of  her  dam— Sir  Archy — ^nothing 
need  be  said,  the  latter  standing  unrivalled,  as  he  does,  as  the 
sire  of  a  host  of  winners,  while  Eclipse  is  equally  unrivalled  as 
a  winner  himself. 

The  grand  dam  of  black  Maria,  another  prodigy,  was,  if  possi- 
ble, still  more  remarkable  ;  she  united  not  only  a  great  turn  of 
speed  to  unflinching  game,  but  she  ran  to  her  fourteenth  year. 
She  was  herself  out  of  a  celebrated  race  mare  by  Imported 
Shark,  one  of  the  best  racers  and  stallions  England  ever  pro- 
duced. She  was  first  known  as  "Selden's  Maria,"  and  in  her 
3  yr.  old  form  was  sold  to  Mr.  Alexander,  for  $2,000,  an  im- 
mense price  in  those  days.  In  the  same  year,  1799,  she  was 
purchased  jointly  by  the  late  Col.  John  Tayloe,  of  Virginia,  and 
the  late  Gen.Wade  Hampton,  of  South  Carolina,  to  match  Shark, 
and  went  into  the  stable  of  the  latter,  under  the  name  of  "  Black 
Maria."  Gen.  H.  soon  after  purchased  Col.  T.'s  interest  in  her, 
and  not  only  won  his  match,  but  carried  off  eveiy  purse  for  which 
he  entered  her.  Subsequently  she  passed  into  the  hands  of  Col. 
W.  Alston,  of  S.  C,  who  after  running  her  a  few  seasons,  sold 
her  back  again  to  Col.  Tayloe,  at  14  years  of  age,  for  $2,500, 
then  the  highest  price  ever  '^aid  for  a  brood  mare. 


224  THE    HORSE. 

The  produce  of  no  mare  in  America  has  ever  realized  for 
their  owners,  probably,  so  large  an  amount  as  Lady  Lightfoot. 
Though  the  subject  of  this  memoir  was,  beyond  question,  the 
best  of  her  produce,  the  jierformances  of  either  Shark  or  Bay 
Maria  would  alone  entitle  her  to  high  consideration.  Eclipse 
Lightfoot  had  a  remarkable  turn  of  speed,  but  being  taken  with 
the  distemper,  was  thrown  out  of  training,  and  soon  afterwards 
sold  to  be  i)ut  into  the  stud.  Screamer,  Terror,  and  Young  Lady 
Lightfoot  never  j)articularly  distinguished  themselves,  and  the 
two  last  for  very  manifest  reasons  ;  the  first  fell  when  3  yrs.  old, 
and  received  an  injury  in  his  thigh,  of  which  he  never  entirely 
recovered,  and  the  last  from  running  with  shoes  on  for  two  years, 
had  her  feet  ruined  ;  we  saw  her  not  a  week  since,  at  her  breed- 
er's stable,  and  on  examining  them,  found  them  not  only  small 
and  mis-shapen,  but  the  frog  on  both  fore  feet  was  entirely 
gone !  Harlem  Lass  was  specially  bred  for  a  brood  mare,  and 
never  trained. 

Our  portrait  of  Black  Maria  is  pronounced  on  all  hands  to 
be  a  most  striking  and  remarkable  likeness.  It  was  painted  in 
1834,  near  the  close  of  her  racing  career,  and  at  the  termination 
of  a  severe  campaign,  when  she  was  very  low  in  flesh.  Troye 
was  unusually  successful  with  his  picture,  and  our  clever  en- 
gravers have  been  equally  felicitous,  as  we  are  assured  by 
Mr.  Stevens,  Mr.  Hall,  and  several  other  gentlemen  who  were 
familiar  with  the  subject  of  it.  As  "the  old  Black  Mare" 
entertained  some  "  vulgar  prejudice  "  against  "  sitting  for  her 
portrait,"  Troye  directed  Bill  Patrick,  her  faithful  groom,  to 
ride  her  out  into  a  paddock  in  front  of  his  window  ;  this  pro- 
ceeding might  be  all  very  well  for  the  painter  and  for  the  mare, 
Bill  thought,  but  as  for  him,  he  was  inclined  to  "'  sulk,"  after 
two  hours'  promenading ;  so  whipping  off  his  saddle,  he  incon- 
tinently determined  to  hitch  the  mare  and  "  bolt,"  for  which 
disregard  of  orders  and  his  lukewarmness  in  facilitating  the 
progress  of  the  Fine  Arts,  Xi'c>ye  chipped  him  into  his  picture  in 
the  very  act  of  connnitting  so  grave  an  offence  in  the  eye  of  a 
turfman  or  an  artist,  as  hitching  a  race-horse  to  a  tree!  Of 
course  he  will  now  go  doMm  through  all  time  as  the  boy  who  was 
guilty  of  so  unpardonable  a  sin,  but  for  fear  his  punishment 
would  be  greater  than  he  could  bear,  Troye,  through  urgent  in- 


BLACK   MARIA.  225 

tercession,  was  finally  induced  to  remit  a  portion  of  tlie  punish- 
ment he  had  intended,  by  concealing  his  face. 

Black  Maria's  name  indicates  her  color ;  her  coat  is  a  glossy 
jet,  without  a  white  mark,  and  her  measurement,  under  the 
standard,  is  fifteen  hands  three  inches.  She  "  favors  "  Lady 
Lightfoot  in  the  shape  of  her  head,  which  is  lighter  than  most 
of  the  get  of  Eclipse,  tapering  considerably  towards  the  mouth ; 
she  has  very  fine  expressive  eyes,  and  her  ears  are  remarkably 
pretty ;  her  neck  is  delicate,  well-shaped,  and  rather  long,  but 
not  out  of  proportion  to  the  length  of  her  head,  which  is  very 
well  set  on ;  her  neck  comes  out  exceedingly  well  from  her 
shoulders,  which  are  broad  and  beautifully  clean,  though  not 
quite  oblique  enough  to  our  taste  ;  on  this  point,  however, 
"  doctors  difier."  She  rises  very  high  in  her  withers ;  her  arms 
are  long,  and  immensely  powei'ful,  with  short  and  very  flat 
cannon  bones ;  she  has  good  knees,  neat  pasterns,  and  per- 
fectly shaped  feet ;  the  great  depth  of  her  chest  allows  free  res- 
piration, her  bi'isket  falling  down  much  in  the  style  of  old 
Eclipse  ;  taken  altogether,  forehanded,  she  is  almost  faultless, 
combining  the  best  points  of  both  her  dam  and  sire.  When  we 
saw  her  last — now  a  year  since — she  was  greatly  filled  out, 
with  well  rounded  fore  and  back  ribs,  and  a  better  proportioned 
barrel  than  she  generally  exhibited  in  training ;  she  was  wont 
to  be  rather  light,  and  considerably  tucked  up  in  the  flank, 
though  now  and  then  she  was  in  this  respect  a  perfect  model ; 
the  principal  objection  to  her  was  ever  her  great  length  of  car- 
cass. Her  conj)ling  does  not  indicate  that  ability  to  take  up 
her  weight  and  go  a  distance,  which  her  performances  have  so 
signally  demonstrated — another  proof  that  horses  run  in  all 
forms.  She  has  arched  loins,  with  good  but  rather  drooping 
quarters — very  muscular  thighs,  and  gaskins  of  prodigious 
strength,  and  clean  hocks,  coming  well  down  to  the  ground. 
Tlie  only  two  points  about  her  that  might  justly  be  found  fault 
with,  consist  of  the  unsightly  "  Bedford  hump "  between  her 
hips,  and  her  barrel,  which  is  too  long  and  too  light.  It  has 
been  urged  that  the  peculiar  conformation  of  most  of  the  Eclipse 
and  Lady  Lightfoot  stock  induces  curbs  ;  however  it  may  have 
been  with  the  others,  the  two  Marias  exhibit  as  beautifully 
formed  limbs  as  ever  supported  a  high-mettled  racer.  Black 
Vol.  L— 15 


226  THE   IICKSE. 

Maria's  style  of  going  was  remarkably  strong  and  steady,  and 
her  stride  was  tremendous ;  in  brushing,  she  covered  twenty- 
four  feet  at  a  stroke.  That  she  united  unflinching  game,  and  a 
remarkable  turn  of  speed,  to  that  particularly  fine  idea  of  "  per- 
petual motion  "  which  characterized  her  illustrious  ancestry, 
the  subjoined  record  of  her  performances  will  abundantly  de- 
monstrate. Baxter,  who  brought  Dosoris  and  Fordham  to  the 
post  for  their  maiden  races  in  such  superb  condition,  was  her 
first  trainer,  and  Alfred  Conover,  tlie  present  capital  trainer  of 
Mr.  Robert  L.  Stevens,  had  the  honor  of  first  throwing  his  leg 
over  her  back.  She  won  her  first  four-mile  race  in  the  hands 
of  Frederick,  "  the  yellow  man,"  and  subsequently  was  trained 
by  John  Buckley,  David  Palmer,  and  Flintofi",  though  Buckley 
trained  her  for  most  of  her  great  races. 

1829.    Union  Course,  Long  Island,  Saturday,  Oct.  8— Produce  Match,  $5,000  each,  h.  ft.,  Two-mile 

heats. 
John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  f.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot  by  Sir  Archy,  3  yrs. 

STlbs 11 

Col.  Wm.  E.  Johnson's  br.  c.  Brilliant,  by  Sir  Archy,  out  of  Bet  Bonnce— Arab's  dam— by 

imp.  Sir  Harry,  3  yrs.  90  lbs 2    2 

Time,  4.01—3.58.    Track  heavy. 

This  match  was  made  on  blood,  before  either  animal  was 
foaled,  and  naturally  excited  a  good  deal  of  interest.  It  was 
ISTorth  versus  South  again.  It  being  the  first  appearance  of 
both  performers,  little  or  nothing  was  known,  even  by  "  men  of 
business,"  of  the  speed  or  endurance  oi  either.  Maria  looked 
like  "  a  good  'un,"  but  then  Brilliant  was  bi-ought  to  the  post 
by  that  first-rate  judge  and  crack  trainer.  Col.  Johnson,  who 
showed  he  knew  a  "  hawk  from  a  handsaw,"  by  ofi'ering  to  pay 
$1750  to  be  oft";  but  this  was  " no  go  " — t'other  party  "  know'd 
Bum'ut "  too,  and  wouldn't  bite.  The  Colonel  knew  the  black 
lady  to  be  well-born  and  well-bred  ;  but  thinking  she  might 
turn  out,  as  many  others  with  the  same  advantages  have  done, 
no  better  than  she  should  be,  he  determined,  rather  than  pay 
the  $2,500,  to  start  Brilliant,  and  so  "  threw  the  helve  after  the 
hatchet."  The  pace  for  the  first  mile  was  "  as  slow  as  foot  could 
fall,"  and  for  three-quarters  of  the  second  it  was  any  thing  but 
a  racing  one.  At  the  quarter  stake  Brilliant  let  loose,  and 
gained  two  or  three  lengths  by  the  rush.     This  awoke  the  boy 


BLACK    MARIA    AND    BRILLIANT.  5327 

upon  Maria,  and  lie  waked  up  the  fillv  with  six  or  eight  such 
first-rate  "  eye  openers,"  as  brought  her,  at  a  slapping  pace, 
three  or  four  lengths  ahead,  at  the  ending  post.  Time,  4.01. 
The  filly's  taking  the  string  to  win  the  heat  in  such  bad  time, 
led  the  backers  of  Brilliant  to  believe  that  his  "  good  fix " 
would  tell  in  the  next  heat,  and  so  they  were  "  all  alive  and 
kicking."  In  going  otf  the  second  heat,  the  "  persuaders  "  were 
applied  to  Brilliant  from  the  score,  and  continued  "  ever  and 
anon."  The  pace  for  the  first  mile  was  respectable  ;  but  it  was 
evident  the  mare  was  going  too  much  at  her  ease  to  bode  any 
good  to  the  horse.  She  was  kept  well  together,  and  ready  at 
any  moment  for  a  rally.  The  boy  on  Brilliant  tried  what  cutting 
would  do,  but  it  was  of  no  service.  Tliis  diamond,  though  of 
the  Yirgiuia  water,  shone  none  the  brighter  for  it.  In  the  last 
half  mile,  the  horse  knocked  up,  from  being  overworked  in  the 
first,  and  the  "  Coal  Black  Rose  "  won  without  a  struggle  in 
3.58.  After  the  race,  Col.  Johnson  was  persuaded,  by  a  gentle- 
man from  Quebec,  to  throw  this  pearl  away  for  a  thousand  dol- 
lars ;  he  has  since  been  a  winner  in  Canada.  Within  a  few 
months  he  has  been  purchased  by  James  M.  Beall,  Esq.,  of  Rus- 
sell ville,  Ky.,  for  $2,000,  and  will  stand  at  that  place  next 
season.  The  betting,  when  the  horses  were  stripped,  was  gen- 
erally about  equal,  the  Southern  horse  being  rather  the  favorite 
with  a  limited  party.     The  track  was  very  heavy. 

1829.  Same  course,  Oct.  8— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $400,  free  for  all  ages,  3  yr.  olds  carrying  90  lbs.— 
4, 104—5, 114 — 6, 121—7  and  upwards,  126  lbs. ;  mares,  fillies  and  geldings  allowed  8  lbs.  Three- 
mile  heats. 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  f.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  3  yrs.         .       .       .11 

Maj.  Wm.  Jones's  ch.  m.  Lady  Flirt,  by  Hickory,  dam  by  Duroc,  6  yrs 2    2 

Smith  Freeman's  ch.  h.  Sir  Charles,  by  Duroc,  out  of  Maria  Slamerkin,  by  Bond's  First 

Consul,  5  yrs 3  dist. 

Time,  5.59—6.12. 

Black  Maria  took  the  lead  from  the  start,  was  never  headed, 
and  won  in  a  canter.  Lady  Flirt  is  still  in  Major  Jones's  breed- 
ing stud  on  Long  Island,  and  is  the  dam  of  his  Andrew  filly 
Fidget,  and  some  other  young  things. 

1830.  Same  course,  Monday,  May  10 — Sweepstakes  for  all  ages,  weights  as  before.  Three  sub- 
scribers at  one  thousand  dollars  each,  P.  P.     Four  miles. 

Col.  Wm.  E.  Johnson's  b.  m.  Slender,  by  Sir  Charles,  out  of  Reality,  by  Sir  Archy,  5  yrs.  .        .  1 

John  0.  Stevens'  bl.  f.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  4  yrs 2 

Walter  Livingston's  gr.  m.  Betsey  Ransom,  by  Virginian,  out  of  Favorite,  by  Bel- Air,  6  yrs.    .  * 
Time,  7.58.     *  Broke  down. 


228  THE    IIOKSE. 

Slender  was  the  favorite  at  odds  against  the  fiohl.  During 
the  training  of  Betsey  Kansom,  the  fall  j^revions,  she  liad  let 
down  in  the  hack  sinew  of  one  fore  leg,  and  was  tlien  purchased, 
bj  Mr,  Livingston,  as  unsound.  By  the  aid  of  blisters,  and  that 
grand  specific  of  nature,  rest,  she  had,  to  appearance,  so  far  sur- 
mounted this  accident  as  to  induce  Mr.  Livingston,  prior  to  the 
1st  of  January,  1830,  to  nominate  her  for  this  stake  ;  but  unfor- 
tunately, her  leg  could  not  stand  the  exercise  required  to  get 
four  mile  length  into  her.  She  complained  much — ^lier  work 
was  of  necessity  curtailed,  and  her  gallops,  at  times,  discon- 
tinued. She  came  to  the  post  by  much  too  high  in  flesh,  and 
her  leg  much  swollen — it  was  madness  to  start  her.  Black 
Maria  fell  far  short  of  tip-top  order,  while  Slender  was  all  and 
all  the  thing.     The  race  is  thus  described. 

"  They  got  off  well  together,  Maria  taking  the  lead,  followed 
closely  by  Betsey  Kansom — Slender  trailing  a  little.  Li  this 
way  they  went  along  at  a  clever  rate,  all  in  hand,  for  the  first 
mile  and  a  quarter,  each  waiting  for  the  other  to  make  play. 
In  ffoino;  down  the  back  stretch  in  the  second  mile,  Slender  let 
out  a  little,  lapped  Betsey,  and  ran  up  to  Maria,  whose  rider  set 
her  upon  her  legs,  and  all  three  went  the  pace,  until  they  arrived 
at  the  rise  of  the  ground,  at  the  termination  of  the  straight  run, 
on  the  back  side.  Here  Billy  Clark  took  the  bay  mare  firmly 
in  hand,  while  Maria  led  round  the  north  turn,  with  Betsey 
close  up.  When  they  entered  upon  the  quarter  stretch,  toward 
the  termination  of  the  second  round.  Slender  again  let  out,  and 
all  came  up  the  straight  run  at  a  rattling  rate,  the  black  mare 
still  leading  the  gray  in  her  former  position,  and  the  bay  still 
waiting  upon  them.  Thus  they  entered  upon  the  third  mile, 
and  passed  round  the  south  turn.  When  they  arrived  at  the 
commencement  of  the  straight  run,  on  the  back  part,  it  was 
evident  that  Betsey  faltered — her  fine  regular  stride  was  gone — 
she  clambered,  and  was  all  abroad.  Slender  passed  in  her 
steady  stroke.  Betsey  continued  to  drop  rapidly,  and,  being 
completely  let  down,  was  stopped,  near  the  termination  of  the 
third  mile.  Maria  and  Slender  were  now  going  the  last  mile, 
and  had  advanced  full  half  way  round  the  first  turn  ;  the  latter 
collected  and  in  hand,  ready  for  a  dash.  As  soon  as  they  com- 
menced the  stretch,  on  the  back  side,  she  made  play,  ran  up  and 


BLACK    MARIA    AND    SLENDER.  229 

challenged,  and  a  sharp  rally  ensued  for  about  sixty  rods.  But 
the  set-to  commenced  too  early  ;  the  distance  home  too  long  for 
Maria  to  live  through  ;  the  length  began  to  tell,  and  although 
the  boy  got  well  at  her,  it  would  not  do.  Slender  came  in  front 
at  the  end  of  the  straight  side,  and  swept  boldly  round  the  last 
turn.  The  black  mare's  chance  was  now  out,  while  the  bay 
entered  upon  the  last  quarter  stretch  in  good  style,  winning  in 
a  canter. — Time,  Y.58." 

Slender,  the  beautiful  winner  of  this  race,  was  killed  the 
May  following,  by  an  accident  received  in  a  race  with  Collier 
and  Eliza  Eeilly,  at  J^orfolk,  Va.  It  occurred  on  the  25th  May, 
in  running  four-mile  heats.  The  three  entries  were  locked  in 
the  second  mile,  Slender  having  the  inside  track ;  when  all 
three  were  making  play  for  the  lead.  Slender  struck  one  of  her 
feet  against  the  railing,  and  fell.  Tlie  shock  was  so  great  as  to 
deprive  her  of  all  motion,  and  she  lay  apparently  lifeless  on  the 
track,  whence  she  was  immediately  removed,  and  every  effort 
made  to  revive  her ;  but  it  appeared,  upon  examination,  that 
the  spine  was  broken,  and  that  she  had  received  some  internal 
hurts,  which  rendered  recovery  impossible ;  she  died  at  10 
o'clock  the  same  night.  Her  fate  excited  general  sympathy, 
and  a  deep-felt  regret  in  the  gallant  turfman  to  whom  this  fine 
animal  belonged.  To  him  her  nominal  value  was  of  little  con- 
sequence, but  she  was  a  favorite.     Her  rider  escaped  unhurt. 

Betsey  Eansom,  now  owned  by  Eobert  L.  Stevens,  Esq.,  of 
this  city,  he  sent  out  to  England,  in  company  with  hi^  celebrated 
mare  Polly  Hopkins,  in  October,  1834.  They  went  out  in  foal 
to  Eclipse  ;  Polly  Hopkins  dropped  a  colt,  and  Betsey  Eansom 
a  filly  foal,  which  were  imported  in  their  yearling  form.  The 
filly,  called  Jessica,  Mr.  Stevens  sold  last  season,  and  she  is  now 
owned  in  Missouri ;  Mr.  P.  C.  Bush  ran  her  with  credit  at  the 
fall  meeting  of  the  St.  Louis  Jockey  Club,  over  the  Sulphur 
Springs  Course.  In  England  the  two  mares  were  bred  to  the 
most  fashionable  stallions  of  the  day  ;  in  183T  a  yearling  filly 
by  Priam — since  imported — and  another  by  Emilius  came  over, 
and  shortly  afterwards  Betsey  Eansom  herself ;  she  was  bred 
last  year  to  Mr.  John  C.  Stevens'  Dosoris,  while  Polly  Hopkins 
was  stinted  to  Plenipo,  and  still  remains  abroad. 


230  THE    ITORSK. 

1830.    Dutchess  County  Course,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  T.,  Wednesday,  May  19— Jockey  Club  Purse, 
|S00,  free  for  all  ages ;    weights  as  on  the  Union  Course.    Three-mile  heats. 

Maj.  Wm.  Jones's  ch.  m.  Lady  Flirt,  by  Hickory,  dam  by  Duroc,  aged 11 

John  C.  Stevens' bl.f.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Liglitfoot,  4  yrs.        ...  2    2 

Gen.  Bedell's  b.  f  Jeannett,  by  Eclipse,  dam  by ,  4  yrs ■*    * 

Wm.  H.  Minge'sb.  c.  Mayday,  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  Hornet,  4  yrs *    * 

Time,  6.00  each  heat. 

No  particulars  of  this  race  have  come  to  our  knowledge, 
otherwise  than  that  it  was  said  to  have  been  "  won  handily." 
The  Jeannett,  run  by  Gen,  Bedell,  must  not  be  confounded  with 
Mr.  Stevens'  Janettc,  own  sister  to  Sir  Charles.  Mayday  was 
standing  at  Buckingham  Court  House,  Ya.,  in  1837,  since  which 
we  have  lost  sight  of  him. 

1830.    Same  course,  Thursday,  Oct.  7 — Jockey  Club  Purse,  $500,  free  for  all  ages,  weights  as  before. 
Four-mile  heats. 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  f.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  4  yrs 11 

Jos.  H.  Van  Mater's  ch.  c.  Leopold,  by  Oscar,  out  of  Katydid,  by  imp.  Expedition,  4  yrs.       .  3    2 

John  Buckley's  ch.  m.  Lady  Hunter,  by  Duroc,  out  of  Lady  Eichmond,  by  Eagle,  6  yrs.     .  2    8 

Maj.  Wm.  Jones's  ch.  m.  Lady  Flirt,  by  Hickory,  dam  by  Duroc,  aged, dist. 

Time,  7.53-8.05. 

A  very  fine  race  between  Leopold  and  Lady  Hunter,  neither 
being  able  to  put  up  the  winner,  who  won  cleverly  at  her  ease. 
Leopold  is  now  standing  in  Illinois,  and  promises  to  distinguish 
himself.  Lady  Hunter  is  beneath  the  turf.  It  will  be  seen  that 
Lady  Flirt,  who  beat  Black  Maria  in  her  previous  race,  was  dis- 
tanced by  her  in  this  with  ease. 

1830.  Same  course,  "Wednesday,  Oct.  27 — Jockey  Club  Purse,  $500,  conditions  as  before.    Four- 
mile  heats. 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  f.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  4  yrs.         .        .       .11 

Jos.  H.  Van  Mater's  ch.  c.  Leopold,  by  Oscar,  out  of  Katydid,  4  yrs 2    2 

Mr.  Parker's  gr.  m.  Peggy  Madee,  by  Sir  Hal,  dam  by  Sir  Archy,  aged 5    8 

Thos.  Pearsall's  ch.  m.  Medora,  by  Rattler,  out  of  Sport's-mistress  by  Hickory,  4  yrs.        .         8    4 

J.  Buckley's  ch.  m.  Lady  Hunter,  by  Duroc,  out  of  Lady  Eichmond,  6  yrs 4    6 

Time,  7.56—7.53. 

A  capital  race,  all  out  and  doing  their  best  from  end  to  end, 
save  the  winner,  who  cut  out  the  work  with  a  long  rating  stroke, 
and  never  was  headed  in  either  heat.  Peggy  Madee,  when  we 
last  heard  of  her,  was  in  the  breeding  stud  of  Henry  Maclin, 
Esq.,  of  Yirginia. 

1831.  Union  Course,  L.  I.,  Thursday,  May  12— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $600,  conditions  as  before. 
Fonr-mile  heats. 

Col.  "Wm.  R.  Johnson's  gr.  f.  Bonnets  o'  Blue,  by  Sir  Charles,  out  of  Eeallty,  by  Sir  Archy, 

•    4  yrs 11 

John  C.  Stevens' bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot  5  yrs.    .       .  2    3 

Dr.  Alex.  Hosack's  ch.  h.  St.  George,  by  Eclipse,  5  yrs diat. 

Time,  7.57—8.22. 


BONNETS    o'    BLUE.  231 

Bonnets  o'  Blue,  a  veiy  superior  race  mare,  promises  to  be- 
come equally  celebrated  in  tbe  breeding  stud.  She  is  now  the 
property  of  AVilliam  Gibbons,  Esq.,  of  Madison,  N.  J.,  wbo  has 
colts  from  her  by  Shark  and  imp.  Trustee ;  the  former  at  a 
year  old  was  very  bloodlike,  and  as  promising  a  yearling  as  we 
ever  saw  ;  he  makes  his  debut  in  the  spring,  and  though  a  little 
under-sized,  promises  to  confer  credit  upon  his  illustrious  ances- 
try. If  our  memory  serves  us,  Mr.  Gibbons  paid  Col.  Johnson 
$2,500  for  Bonnets  o'  Blue,  after  she  was  withdrawn  from  the 
turf.  'No  particulars  of  this  race  are  furnished  by  the  Turf 
Register  or  journals  of  the  day.  Dr.  Hosack's  St.  George  was 
of  no  account. 

1831.    Dutchess  County  Course,  Poushkeepsie,  N.  T.,  Thursday,  May  26— Jockey  Club  Purse, 

$500,  free  for  all  ages,  weights  as  before.    Four-mile  heats. 
John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  5  yrs.        .        .        .11 
Jos  H..  Van  Mater's  eh.  c.  Mark  Eichards,  by  John  Pachards,  dam  by  Eevenge,  4  yi-s.        .        2    2 

J.  S.  Snedeker's  gr.  h.  Splendid,  by  Duroc,  out  of  Empress,  aged 3    * 

Time,  8.17— S.80.     *  Broke  down. 

The  track  was  very  heavy,  and  neither  of  the  other  entries 
were  able  to  push  the  winner,  who  led  from  end  to  end.  Mark 
Richards  has  since  stood  for  mares,  and  if  we  mistake  not. 
Splendid  is  yet  a  stallion  at  the  South-west.  Some  of  the 
former's  stock  we  have  seen,  but  cannot  say  much  for  them. 

1831.     Same  course,  Thursday,  Oct.  6— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $500,  conditions  as  before.     Four-mile 

heats. 
Col.  Wm.  Wynn's  b.  c.  James  Cropper,  by  Sir  Charles,  dam  by  Whip,  4  yrs.      .       .        .12    1 
John  C.  Stevens'  bL  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  5  yrs.        .'       .        2    12 
Time,  8.01— 8.04— S.OT.    Track  heavy. 

Cropper  was  the  favorite  at  long  odds,  the  mare  being  amiss. 
Each  heat  was  desperately  contested,  Cropper  winning  the  first 
heat  by  a  neck  onlj^,  after  being  spurred  all  the  way  up  the 
straight  side.  Betting  now  ten  to  one  on  him.  Black  Maria 
won  the  second  heat  by  two  lengths,  having  a  different  jockey 
on  her  back  ;  the  one  who  rode  her  the  first  was  obliged  to 
carry  a  heavy  hag  of  sand  to  make  up  his  weight.  The  issue 
of  the  third  heat  was  put  upon  a  brush  by  Maria,  and  she  lost 
it  by  a  throatlatch  merely  ;  two  more  strokes  would  have  "  done 
the  trick."  James  Cropper,  at  our  last  accounts  of  him,  M'as 
standing  in  IS'ottoway  county,  Ya. 


232  THE   HORSE. 

1831.  Central  Course,  Baltimore,  Md.,  "Wednesday,  Oct.  26— Post  Stake  for  all  ages,  3  yr.  olds  to 
carry  86  lbs. — 4, 100 — 5, 110—6, 118—7  and  upwards,  124  lbs.  allowing  8  lbs.  to  mares  and  geld- 
ings. Six  subscribers  at  $500  each,  to  which  the  proprietor  added  $1,000.  Four-mile  heats. 
John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  ni.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  5  yrs.  .  .511 
Col.  John  P.  White's  ch.  h.  Collier,  by  Sir  Charles,  dam  by  Whi[.,  5  yrs.  .  .  .  3  2  2 
Col.  W.  K.  Johnson's  b.  m.  Virginia  Taylor,  by  Sir  Archy,  out  of  Coquette,  5  yrs.  .  .13  3 
Col.  Wm.  Wynn's  b.  c.  James  Cropper,  by  Sir  Charles,  dam  by  Whip,  4  yrs.         .        .         4    4    * 

Gen.  C.  Irvine's  ch.  c.  Bu.siris,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Grand  Duchess,  4  yrs 6    dist 

Dr.  Wm.  II.  Miuge's  b.  f.  Eliza  Eeilly,  by  Sir  Archy,  out  of  Bet  Bounce,  4  yrs.     .       .        2      dr. 
Time,  8.0-3— 8.10— 8.03.    *  Broke  down. 

"  Godolpliin,"  a  favorite  correspondent  of  the  "  Turf  Eegis- 
ter"  at  the  time,  gives  us  the  annexed  report  of  this  fine 
race : — 

"  The  amount  of  the  purse,  the  reputation  of  the  horses,  to- 
gether with  the  concourse  assembled  to  witness  it,  gave  to  this 
race  an  interest  scarcely  inferior  to  that  excited  by  the  contest 
between  Henry  and  Eclipse.  The  course,  from  the  surrounding 
hills,  had  the  appearance  of  a  vast  amphitheatre.  Its  whole 
area  seemed  covered  with  equipages — some  of  them  very  splen- 
did— mingled  with  troops  of  well-dressed  men,  on  foot  and  on 
horseback.  The  sun  shone  with  more  than  his  usual  splendor — 
there  was  not  a  cloud  to  be  seen — Heaven  and  the  ladies  smiled 
upon  the  first  efforts  of  the  Maryland  Jockey  Club.  How, 
then,  could  they  fail  ?  Their  immense  pavilions  were  crowded 
with  spectators,  collected  from  every  State  in  the  Union.  The 
one  appropriated  to  the  ladies  w'as  occupied  by  hundreds. of  the 
gay  and  beautiful  of  that  sex,  without  whose  smiles,  the  flowers 
of  the  brightest  wa-eaths  ever  wove  for  victory  would  fade  and 
be  valueless.  Their  presence  was  felt  as  a  security  for  the  ob- 
servance of  those  rules,  the  slightest  violation  of  which  w'ould 
have  been  deemed  a  disgrace  too  deep  for  a  gentleman,  and  too 
dangerous  for  a  ruffian  to  encounter. 

"  The  horses  Avere  mounted,  and  got  off  well  together  at  a 
few  minutes  after  one  o'clock.  Eliza  Keilly  came  out  of  the 
crowd  and  took  the  lead  down  the  back  stretch,  followed  at  dif- 
ferent distances  by  the  others.  In  the  last  mile  she  was  tackled 
by  Yirginia  Taylor,  who  beat  her  the  heat  by  a  length  in  8.03. 
What  Collier  and  Cropper  did,  or  meant  to  do,  nobody  could 
guess,  as  they  appeared  to  change  their  minds  some  half  dozen 
of  times,  running  at  one  moment,  and  pulling  at  another. 
Busiris  dropt  just  within  his  distance.  The  boy  on  Black  Maria 
was  ordered  to  do  the  same  ;  but,  maugre  his  utmost  exertions, 


COLLIER   AND   ELIZA    EEILLY.  233 

and  his  nmning  rein,  she  came  within  a  mile  distance  of  the 
winning  horse.  Had  she  broke  away  with  him  in  the  hist  half 
mile — which  I  expected  every  minute  to  see — she  would  have 
won  the  heat  in  spite  of  his  teeth.  The  heat  varied  the  betting 
but  httle.  It  was  still,  as  at  the  commencement.  Collier  against 
Cropper— Collier  against  the  field— Cropper  against  the  black 
mare — the  field  against  either,  &c.,  &c. 

"  For  the  second  heat  five  started,  Eliza  Eeillj  being  drawn. 
The  first  three  miles  of  this  heat  was  done  in  a  gallop,  neither 
seeming  anxious  to  make  play.  At  the  end  of  the  third  mile 
Maria  took  the  track,  and  kept  it  at  a  killing  pace,  winning 
easily  in  8.10.  Collier  second,  and  Busiris  distanced.  This 
bout  changed  the  complexion  of  things.  It  was  now  Maria 
against  the  field,  and  no  takers. 

"  Tour  stripped  for  the  third  heat ;  but  the  way  in  which 
the  black  mare  cooled  out,  showed  to  those  who  knew  a  hawk 
from  a  handsaw,  that  the  jig  was  up,  barring  accident.  It  was 
a  side  of  bacon  to  a  sour  apple — no  bad  thing,  as  the  stable 
boys,  as  well  as  myself,  can  vouch.  That,  together  with  the 
corn  bread,  stuck  so  close  to  the  ribs  of  Gil  and  Kalpli,  that 
four  ounces  of  salts  had  no  efi"ect  on  either,  except  to  harden 
the  corn  bread  and  the  bacon,  and  render  them  four  ounces 
heavier,  instead  of  four  pounds — the  difi'erence  between  ISTorthern 
and  Southern  weights— lighter.  Maria  took  the  lead  and  kept 
it,  winning  easily  in  8.03— as  hard  as  Ralph  could  pull  her. 
Cropper  broke  down  in  the  third  mile." 

Collier  stood  at  the  Madison  Course,  Ky.,  last  season.  Busiris, 
for  several  seasons,  has  been  covering  in  Pennsylvania,  quite 
"  out  of  the  world,"  as  regards  thoroughbred  mares,  though  a 
very  capital  horse  ;  he  ought  to  be  sent  to  a  "  race-horse  region." 
At  the  sale  of  Mr.  Minge's  stock  last  October,  Eliza  Reilly  was 
sold  to  J.  H.  Williamson,  Esq.,  of  Yirginia.  Virginia  Taylor, 
who  soon  after  this  race  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  late  Mr. 
Craig,  of  Philadelphia,  is  now  the  property  of  Dr.  George  Mc- 
Clellan,  of  that  city. 

1831.    Same  course,  Saturday,  Oct.  29— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $T00,  free  for  all  ages,  weights  as  be- 
fore.    Four-mile  heats. 

Col.  Wm.  E.  Johnson's  ch.  t.  Trifle,  by  Sir  Charles,  clam  by  Cicero,  .3  yrs 11 

John  0.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  5  yrs.    ...  22 

Col.  J.  P.  White's  ch.  h.  Collier,  by  Sir  Charles,  dam  by  Whip,  5  yrs 8    3 

Dr.  John  Minge's  b.  h.  Mayday,  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  Hornet,  3  yrs 4    4 

Time.  8.00—7.55.    Track  heavy. 


234  Tin-:  horse. 

The  following  spirited  account  of  this  race  is  from  the  same 
correspondent. 

"  Two  to  one  on  Maria  against  the  field  and  few  takers. 
She  was  known  to  have  fed  but  little,  and  to  be  somewhat  stiff 
and  sore  from  her  race  of  Wednesday,  still  it  was  thought  there 
was  enough  left  in  her  to  beat  Collier,  Mayday,  and  an  untried 
3-year-old  of  14  hands  high.  The  start  w^as  a  good  one.  Col- 
lier and  Mayday  had  the  track  for  the  first  two  miles  and  a  half, 
closely  followed  by  Maria  and  Trifle  ;  Maria  then  came  in  front 
and  kept  the  lead  to  the  turn  in  the  last  half  mile,  when,  to  the 
astonishment  of  every  body.  Trifle  made  a  brush  and  went  by 
her  two  or  three  lengths.  Ealph  was  all  abroad,  and  did  not 
know  whether  he  was  on  his  head  or  his  heels.  Whalebone 
and  catgut  could  only  bring  the  mare  to  a  lap  at  the  ending 
post.  Trifle  won  the  heat  in  8.00.  Collier  and  Mayday  laid 
np.  This  heat,  though  it  varied  the  betting  on  the  black  mare, 
did  not  discourage  the  friends  of  Collier,  who  backed  him  to 
win  against  either  the  mare  or  Trifle.  Maria  came  to  the  post 
for  the  second  heat  perfectly  cooled  out,  and  looking  still  like 
a  winner ;  but  she  was  observed  to  be  a  little  lame,  and  to  feel 
in  her  feet  the  effects  of  her  former  race.  Collier  and  Mayday 
were  but  little  distressed,  and  Trifle  came  from  the  hands  of  Col. 
Selden's  trainer  in  perfect  condition.  The  four  stripped  again 
at  the  usual  interval — which  at  the  South  is  forty-five  minutes. 
Collier  and  Mayday  made  the  running  for  the  first  two  miles, 
when  Maria's  steady  stride  brought  her  alongside,  and  in  the 
next  half  mile  ahead  of  both.  The  black  mare  kept  the  track, 
dropping  Collier  and  Mayday  fast,  and  followed  at  a  short  dis- 
tance by  Trifle,  who  had  also  headed  the  other  two.  Li  round- 
ing the  turn  in  the  last  half  mile,  Trifle  again  challenged,  and 
again  went  by  the  mare,  in  the  same  place  and  in  the  same 
style  as  in  the  former  heat,  evincing  no  signs  of  tire,  and  win- 
ning by  a  length  in  7.55.  She  kept  up  her  stride,  and  showed 
an  endurance  that  astonished  those  who  witnessed  this  extra- 
ordinar}'  performance.  In  this  heat  Black  Maria  ran  her 
twentieth  mile  of  that  week  in  1.53." 

Trifle  came  out  in  the  spring  of  this  year,  and  ran  on  to  the 
end  of  the  campaign  of  1834,  during  which  she  started  twenty- 
four  times  and  won  eighteen  races — sixteen  of  them  pm'ses,  at 


TRIFLE.  235 

three  and  four-mile  heats — netting  for  her  owner  $14,380.  She 
has  never  been  put  in  condition  since  first  withdrawn  from  the 
turf,  though  "  taken  up  "  to  train  several  times.  She  dropped 
a  very  fine  br.  fillj  foal  bj  Star  in  1837,  and  is  now  stinted  to 
imp.  Priam  ;  she  still  remains  the  property  of  Col.  Johnson  of 
Yirginia,  and  Capt.  David  H.  Branch,  of  the  Union  Course,  L.  I. 
Charlotte  Russe,  an  own  sister  of  hers,  coming  five  years,  the 
property  of  Col.  Wade  Hampton  of  South  Carolina,  promises  to 
add  another  chaplet  to  the  brow  of  Sir  Charles,  by  her  brilliant 
performances  ;  after  winning  at  the  South  in  the  winter  of  1837, 
she  was  placed  in  the  stable  of  the  "  JSTapoleon,"  who  brought 
her  to  the  JSTorth  with  Boston,  and  she  finished  the  campaign  by 
winning  a  four-mile  purse  on  the  Beacon  Course.  The  same 
chivalrous  gentleman  is  also  the  owner  of  Bay  Maria,  an  own 
sister  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  and  a  distinguished  winner 
at  four-mile  heats.  To  the  great  regret  of  her  Northern  friends, 
Col.  Hampton  withdrew  her  from  the  turf  at  the  close  of  her 
five-year-old  year,  after  she  had  won  three  Jockey  Club  Purses 
in  South  Carolina  at  four-mile  heats,  within  about  as  many 
weeks.  She  was  without  a  blemish  when  put  into  the  stud,  and 
is  the  most  beautiful  brood  mare  we  ever  saw ;  a  filly  she 
dropped  last  season  to  imp.  Rowton  is  considered  a  nonpareil. 

1832.   Dutchess  County  Course,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  T.,  Thursday,  May  17— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $500, 
free  for  all  ages,  3  yr.  olds  90  lbs.— t,  104—5, 114—6, 121—7  and  upwards,  126  lbs.,  mares  and 
geldings  being  allowed  8  lbs.     Four-mile  heats. 
John  C.  Stevens'  hi.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  6  yrs.         .        .        .11 

J.  H.  Forman's  b.  c.  Uncle  Sam,  by  John  Richards,  dam  by  Oscar,  4  yrs 4    2 

Thos.  PearsalVs  ch.  m.  Medora,  by  Battler,  out  of  Sport's-mistress,  6  yrs 5    3 

Mr.  Abbott's  bl.  h.  Eising  Sun,  by  Eclipse,  dam  by  Plato,  5  yrs 3    4 

Jos.  H.  Van  Mater's  gr.  f.  Jane  Grey,  by  Orphan  Boy,  out  of  Eosalind,  by  Oscar,  4  jts.  .        .    2  dr. 
Time,  8.03—8.16. 

The  track  was  very  heavy  from  rain,  having  been  ploughed 
the  fall  previous.  Maria  won  without  a  struggle.  Uncle  Sam 
having  bolted  in  the  last  mile  of  the  second  heat,  notwithstand- 
ing which  he  came  in  second.  We  recollect  seeing  him  adver- 
tised to  stand  for  mares  in  a  Maryland  paper  a  year  or  two 
since.  Medora,  a  very  fine  brood  mare,  is  now  the  property  of 
Walter  Livingston,  Esq.,  of  this  city,  and  is  the  dam  of  his  colt 
Nassau  ;  he  was  nominated  with  Job  in  the  great  $44,000  stake 
run  over  the  Union  Course  last  spring,  for  which  he  was  a  fa- 


236  THE    HORSE. 

vorite,  but  broke  out  with  the  distemper  a  few  days  before  the 
race,  and  was  not  started  during  the  season. 

1832.    Union  Course,  L.  I.,  Wednesday,  May  23— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $500,  conditions  as  at  Pongh- 

keepsie.     Four-mile  licats. 

Bela  Badjrcr's  b.  h.  Flying  Dutchman,  by  John  Richards,  dam  by  Eclipse,  5  yrs.    .        .       .11 

Jos.  H.  Van  Mater's  gr.  f.  Jane  Grey,  by  Orphan  Boy,  out  of  Rosalind,  4  yrs.     ...        32 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  6  yrs.        .       .       .23 

Time,  8.05 — 8.08.    Track  very  heavy  from  rain. 

Tlie  betting  was  general  at  100  to  25  on  Black  Maria, 
amorous  notions  in  whose  head  interfered  with  the  swiftness  of 
her  heels ;  she  was  so  desperately  enamored  with  the  Dutch- 
man, that  she  could  not  be  induced  to  pass  him.  Long  odds 
were  offered  on  her  for  the  race,  even  after  the  first  heat.  After 
Mr.  Badger's  death — some  three  years  since — Flying  Dutchman 
was  sold  to  go  West,  with  Priam — by  John  Eichards — and  an- 
other stallion. 

1832.    Dutchess  County  Course,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  Thursday,  Oct.  4— Jockey  Club  Purse,  |300, 

conditions  as  before.     Three  mile  heats. 
John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  6  yrs.         .       .211 
Dr.  E.  A.  Darcy's  ch.  m.  Lady  Relief,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Maria  Slamerkin,  5  yrs.  .        .         12    3 

A.  Sherman's  ch.  h.  De  Witt  Clinton,  by  Rattler,  out  of  Matilda,  4  yrs 3    3    2 

Time,  6.02—5.55—5.55. 

Black  Maria  not  being  quite  up  to  the  mark,  Mr.  Stevens 
entered  her  for  the  three-mile,  and  O'Kelly,  instead,  for  the  four- 
mile  purse,  and  thereby  won  both  cleverly.  O'Kelly,  then  five 
years  old,  beat  Jane  Grey  and  De  Witt  Clinton,  and  soon  after- 
wards passed  into  the  hands  of  Col.  Johnson,  of  Virginia,  for 
$5,500.  Col.  Johnson  disposed  of  him  soon  after  at  a  handsome 
advance,  to  a  Tennessee  turfman.  Mr.  A.  T.  Nolan  advertised 
him  to  stand  at  Franklin,  Tenn.,  in  1836  ;  his  new  owners 
brought  him  on  the  turf  again  last  season,  in  his  eleventh  year, 
and  considering  "  the  hardships  he  had  passed,"  his  performance 
was  highly  respectable.  De  Witt  Clinton  is  still  the  property 
of  Mr.  Brooks,  of  Ovid,  Seneca  county,  N".  Y.,  who  purchased 
him  of  Mr.  Sherman,  and  he  is  now  standing  at  Columbus, 
Ohio. 

18.32.    Union  Course,  L.  I.,  Saturday,  Oct.  13— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $600,  conditions  as  before.  Four 

mile  heats. 
John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  6  yrs.       .10    2    2    1 
Dr.  E.  A.  Darcy's  ch.  m.  Lady  Relief,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Maria  Slamerkin,  5  jts.     3    8    8    12 
John  C.  Craig's  ch.  f.  Trifle,  by  Sir  Charles,  dam  by  Cicero,  4  yrs.         .        .        .2013  dlst 
Bela  Badger's— John  C.  Tillotson's— b.  f  Slim,  by  Flying  Childers,  out  of  Molly 

Longlegs,  by  Harwood,  4  yrs 4    dist. 

Time,  8.06—7.55—8.13—8.39—8.47. 


THE    TWENTY-MILE    RACE.  237 

Several  interesting  reports  of  this  remarkable  race  have 
been  pnblished,  but  the  most  accurate  and  graphic  one  that  has 
met  our  eye  was  penned  by  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
l!^ew  York  bar — a  gentleman  whose  taste  and  judgment  in 
every  thing  pertaining  to  horse-flesh,  is  only  equalled  by  tlie 
extent  and  variety  of  his  legal  acquirements.  It  appeared  as  a 
communication  in  the  "  Turf  Register,"  in  the  number  for  De- 
cember, 1832,  and  was  to  the  following  eifect  ; — 

"  After  the  horses  were  brought  upon  the  ground,  much 
anxiety  was  exhibited  as  to  the  event  of  the  coming  contest ; 
and  the  interesting  little  Trifle  appeared  to  be  the  favorite 
among  the  betters,  as  well  as  the  spectators. — '  Five  to  four, 
Trifle  against  the  field,'  was  current  betting  ;  and  '  five  to  three, 
Trifle  against  Black  Maria,'  were  repeatedly  off"ered  and  refused. 
Indeed,  this  ofi'spring  of  the  far-famed  Lady  Lightfoot  seemed 
to  have  but  few  friends  or  well-wishers,  comparatively  speaking ; 
and  bets  were  repeatedly  oflfered  that  she  would  not  take  a  heat. 
Prepossessions,  in  favor  of  the  Southern  mare,  appeared  to  exist 
among  a  decided  majority  of  the  spectators  ;  and,  as  she  was 
foaled  '  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,'  it  seemed  a  matter 
of  course  that  she  was  to  win.  Indeed,  if  unfailing  spirits, 
beauty  of  form,  and  a  peculiar  quietness  of  manner,  could  sup|)ly 
the  defect  of  size,  Trifle  would  not  be  considered  as  such  in  any 
thing  but  oiame.  She  is  race-horse  in  every  just  sense  of  the 
word,  but  a  race-horse  of  the  smallest  pattern — not  over  four- 
teen hands  and  a  half  high — of  just  proportions,  undoubted 
bottom,  and  considerable  power.  Her  color  a  bright  chestnut, 
with  a  blaze,  indicating  sj)irit  and  blood. 

"  Black  Maria,  in  size  and  general  appearance,  is  in  all  re- 
spects unlike  her  rival,  as  is  well  known  to  Southern,  as  well  as 
JSTorthern  sportsmen.  Her  color  is  indicated  by  her  name  ;  and 
her  great  size,  strength  and  stride,  show  her  a  worthy  daughter 
of  a  noble  sire.  Indeed,  in  her  the  blood  of  Eclipse  and  Lady 
Lightfoot  are  in  no  way  disgraced,  as  this  race  will  most  fully 
prove. 

"  Lady  Relief  and  Slim  were  almost  unknown  to  fame  ;  but 
certain  individuals  present  were  aware  that  the  former  had, 
upon  a  previous  occasion,  won  the  last  half  of  sixteen  miles  ; 
and  they  looked  for  sport,  unexpected  by  others,  if  it  should 


238  THE    HORSE. 

happen  that  the  two  first  heats  were  not  taken  either  hy  Trifle 
or  Maria.  The  latter,  it  was  known,  had  the  foot  of  Relief;  as 
they  met  on  the  first  of  the  month  at  Ponghkeepsie,  and  con- 
tended together  for  the  three-mile  purse,  which  was  taken  bj 
Maria  with  great  ease.  As  the  trumpet  sounded  for  the  horses 
to  come  up  to  the  starting-post,  they  severally  appeared,  exhibit- 
ing their  various  tempers  by  their  individual  behavior.  Black 
Maria — who  had  the  inside  track — showed  neither  alarm  nor 
anxiety.  She  was  as  calm  and  unimpassioned  as  if  she  had 
been  a  mere  spectator  ;  and  this  coldness  of  demeanor  won  no 
'  golden  opinions '  among  the  lookers-on.  Trifle  exhibited  high 
spirits,  brought  down  to  their  proper  level  by  judicious  break- 
ing and  training.  A  slight  tremor  ran  through  her  frame  ;  and 
an  impatient  lifting  of  the  fore  foot,  now  and  then,  showed  that 
she  was  alive  to  the  coming  struggle. 

"  Lady  Eelief,  on  the  contrar}^,  was  all  tire  and  animation — 
ready  to  break  away  fi-om  her  groom,  and  dash  through  all  ob- 
stacles for  the  sake  of  victory. 

"  Slim  exhibited  an  impatient  spirit,  and  seemed,  by  her 
anxiety,  to  show  herself  a  descendant  from  that  Childers  who 
always  ran  — at  least  on  our  course — without  '  whip  or  spur.' 

"  At  the  tap  of  the  drum  the  fonr  went  off  well  together, 
Relief  taking  the  lead  within  the  first  quarter,  closely  followed 
by  Slim,  then  by  Trifle,  and  last,  but  not  least,  by  Black  Maria. 
The  first  mile  indicated  a  waiting  raee,  as  all  the  riders  had 
their  horses  under  the  hardest  pull ;  each  seeming  desirous  that 
his  antagonists  should  take  the  lead.  Trifle,  impatient  at  such 
trifiing^  began  to  make  play,  and  this  aroused  Black  Maria,  who 
was  trailing  along  quietly,  behind  the  whole.  AVith  a  few  Imge 
strides,  she  brought  herself  up  to  the  front,  passed  the  whole 
before  she  came  to  the  judges'  stand,  followed  closely  by  the 
gallant  little  Trifle,  who  '  stuck  to '  her  like  an  accompanying 
phantom.  At  the  beginning  of  the  third  mile  the  leading  nags 
made  play,  and  during  the  whole  of  it  Maria  held  the  lead,  fol- 
lowed closely  by  Trifle  ;  while  Relief  and  Slim  were — and, 
as  we  believe,  not  willingly — at  a  most  respectable  distance  in 
the  rear. 

"  After  passing  the  judges'  stand  and  entering  upon  the 
fourth  mile,  and  after  compassing  the  turn,  upon  the  southerly 


THE   FIRST    HEAT.  239 

side  of  the  course,  Trifle  '  made  a  dash '  at  Maria,  and  ran  her 
so  hard  down  the  descending  gronnd  upon  the  straiglit  side,  that 
her  sable  antagonist — perhaps  not  unwillingly — gave  up  the 
track,  which  was  taken  by  the  Southern  lady,  and  kept,  with 
apparent  ease,  round  the  turn,  until  you  come  to  that  part  of 
the  course  which  looks  up  towards  the  judges'  stand.  Here,  at 
a  moment  when  all  opinions  had  given  Trifle  the  heat,  as  a 
'  safe  thing  that  could  not  be  missed,'  Maria  '  went  at  her,'  and, 
before  you  could  count  one,  she  shot  by  Trifle  like  an  arrow, 
and  won  the  heat  with  ease  ;  there  being  a  considerable  gap 
between  herself  and  Trifle,  and  a  much  greater  one  between 
the  latter  and  the  hindmost  horses. 

"  Here  then  w^as  disappointment  on  all  sides.  Black  Maria, 
that  was  not  '  to  take  a  heat,'  or  who,  at  all  events,  had  ViOXfoot 
enough  to  brush  with  the  speedy  little  Trifle,  had  beat  the  field, 
in  the  last  quarter,  in  what  she  was  not  supposed  to  possess ; 
namely,  sjyeed.  Indeed,  we  think  that  the  rider  of  Trifle  com- 
mitted a  mistake  in  making  his  dash  at  Maria  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  mile.  As  he  had  commenced  a  trailing  race,  his 
obvious  policy  was  to  wait  until  he  came  to  the  last  turn  ;  then 
run  up  to  his  antagonist  upon  ground  where  he  had  a  decided 
advantage,  from  the  size  and  form  of  his  horse,  and  finally  make 
'  his  run '  upon  the  straight  side,  coming  in.  Had  he  followed 
this  course  in  the  first  heat — as  he  did  in  the  second — we  might 
possibly  have  had  a  difiTerent  tale  to  tell ;  for  his  little  nag  obeys 
the  spur  well,  and  is  a  hard  one  to  beat  upon  a  brush.  But,  by 
running  at  Maria  on  the  northerly  side  of  the  course,  he  dis- 
tressed his  mare,  enabled  his  antagonist  to  come  round  the  turn 
under  a  strong  pull,  and  make  a  run  at  him  at  the  very  moment 
when  he  was  least  prepared  for  it.  The  result  has  already  been 
shown.     Time,  first  heat,  8.06. 

"  It  may  be  here  remarked,  that  in  consequence  of  the  rains, 
which  had  prevailed  for  several  days  previous  to  the  race,  the 
course,  although  good,  was  unusually  heavy  ;  so  much  so,  as  to 
make  a  difference  of  several  seconds,  probably,  in  the  time  of  a 
four-mile  heat.  The  top  of  the  ground  was  not  perfectly  firm, 
and,  consequently,  the  foothold  of  the  horses  was  yielding  and 
insecure.  On  a  hard  track,  the  time  of  each  heat  would  have 
been  considerably  reduced. 


240  THE    HORSE. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  unexpected  success  of  Maria,  she 
seemed  still  to  have  but  few  r^a^'adiuirers  ;  although  her  owner 
and  his  friends  stood  manfully  by  her,  and  kept  their  spirits  up 
to  the  betting  point.  Trifle  was  still  the  favorite,  and  it  was  a 
settled  thing,  'at  all  events,'  that  Maria  was  not  to  'win  the 
money.'  Lady  Relief,  at  this  moment,  had  not  attracted  much 
attention,  except  from  one  circumstance.  Her  saddle — which 
was  a  very  small  one — slipped  from  under  her  rider,  who,  never- 
theless— as  his  girths  had  not  parted — stoutly  kept  his  seat  upon 
her  hare  hack — his  feet  in  the  stirrups,  with  the  saddle  before 
him  !  It  was  observed,  however,  that  she  ran  with  great  spirit ; 
and  what  she  'might  do^  the  wise  ones  could  not  tell. 

"  At  the  start  for  the  second  heat  Black  Maria  appeared 
calm — as  is  usual  with  her — while  Trifle  and  Lady  Relief  were 
all  animation.  They  w^ent  oflF  as  if  this  heat  was  to  be  won  by 
rwmjm^,  instead  of  waiting,  as  in  the  first  heat;  Relief  taking 
the  lead,  followed  by  Slim,  then  by  Trifle,  wdiile  Black  Maria 
brought  up  the  rear.  Ere  they  had  accomplished  one  mile, 
however,  Trifle  had  passed  Relief  and  Slim,  while  Black  Maria, 
taking  advantage  of  the  rising  ground,  as  you  come  up  to  the 
judges'  stand,  thundered  by  them  all,  with  her  long  strides,  and 
took  up  her  station  in  front,  closely  followed  by  Trifle,  Avhilst 
the  others  again  dropped  behind.  Indeed,  the  pace  at  which 
they  were  running  seemed  so  um-easonable  to  Miss  Slim,  that 
she  concluded  that  she  would  not  keep  such  company  any 
longer ;  and,  as  she  could  not  run  away  from  them  by  pursuing 
her  course  upon  the  track,  she  very  wisely  abandoned  it  alto- 
gether, at  the  end  of  the  third — seventh — mile,  and  cptietly 
w-alked  oft'  the  course.  Maria,  in  the  mean  time,  led  Trifle,  with 
apparent  ease,-  round  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  miles,  until 
you  come  to  the  '  run  in.'  And  here  her  rider,  instead  of  giv- 
ing her  the  '  persuaders,'  to  make  '  assurance  doubly  sure,' 
turned  his  head  round  to  look  for  his  antagonist  ;  and  he  was 
not  long  in  finding  her ;  for  Trifle,  close  at  his  heels,  went  at 
him  up  the  straight  side,  whip  and  spur,  gradually  gaining  at 
every  steji.  Maria's  rider  begins  to  '  look  wild.'  She  is  at  her 
throat-latch,  and  the  judges'  stand  not  six  feet  off.  She  makes 
a  desperate  efibrt,  and  head  and  head  they  pass  the  stand — a 
dead  heat !    Time,  7.55. 


THE   THIKD    HEAT.  241 

"  Here,  again,  all  were  at  fault.  One  party  were  crying  out 
to  the  rider  of  Maria,  '  Why  did  you  not  stir  yom-self !  One 
blow  of  the  whip,  before  you  came  to  the  distance  post,  would 
have  won  the  race.'  '  I  had  no  whip,  sir  ;  Maria  won't  bear  it. 
It  discourages  her.  She  must  run  under  a  pull,  with  the  spur 
as  an  admonisher.'  Again  a  thousand  rumors  were  afloat. 
Trifle  was  as  gay  as  a  bird — ^in  no  way  distressed.  She  had 
''posed  the  '  big  'un,'  who  looked,  as  imagination  said,  '  both  sick 
and  sorry.'  It  was  a  '  safe  thing,'  and  '  Black  Maria  can't 
win — she's  done  up ' — went  round  like  wild  fire,  from  mouth  to 
month. 

"  In  the  mean  time,  Lady  Eelief  was  little  thought  of;  but 
a  Jerseyman  was  heard  to  say,  '  We'll  show  'em  some  of  the 
Eclipse  ^j'Zii^c^  yet,  before  we've  done.'  At  the  sounding  of  the 
trumpet  for  the  third  heat.  Trifle  and  Eelief  came  up  in  great 
spirits,  while  Black  Maria  seemed  in  no  way  ambitious  of  an- 
other trial.  But  she's  always  cool ;  and,  as  her  mode  of  start- 
ing is  reluctant  and  slow,  nothing  can  be  safely  argued  from  her 
spirits. 

"  At  the  tap  of  the  drum,  Trifle  and  Relief  went  off  from 
the  score,  leaving  Maria  some  distance  behind.  In  the  course 
of  the  first  mile,  however,  she  lessened  the  gap  between  herself 
and  the  leading  horses,  and  got  well  up  to  them.  But  it  would 
not  do  ;  she  could  not  pass. — '  What  horse  is  that  leading  there  ? 
Surely  it  can't  be  Lady  Relief !  It  is,  upon  my  soul !  The  Jer- 
sey mare's  ahead  ! '  And,  sure  enough,  so  she  was.  The  nag 
that  had  attracted  so  little  notice,  as  neither  to  be  heard  nor 
cared  for,  had  taken  the  lead  upon  the  fourth  mile  ;  and  away 
she  ran,  keeping  the  track  in  spite  of  them  all,  until  you  come 
within  the  distance  pole,  on  the  last  quarter's  stretch.  And 
while  she  was  leading,  well  ahead,  from  some  unaccountable 
circumstance  the  boy  pulled  her  up  at  once,  and  Trifle  shot  by 
and  won  the  heat.     Time,  8,13. 

"  Black  Maria  was  '  well  up '  during  the  whole  race,  but  she 
now  fell  into  comj)lete  disfavor  ;  and  '  she's  done  up  ' — '  an  even 
bet  she  don't  come  again ' — went  round  the  field  with  great  con- 
fidence. It  is  the  writer's  opinion,  that  Relief  could  have  taken 
the  heat  if  she  had  been  urged  up  to  the  judges'  stand,  and  that 
she  ought  to  have  won  it.  As  it  was.  Trifle,  who  well  deserved 
Vol.  I.— 16 


24:2  THE    HOKSE. 

her  honors  and  the  admiration  of  her  friends,  had  been  vic- 
torious. She  had  run  twelve  miles,  winning  the  twelfth  ;  and 
the  little  game  creature  appeared  as  fresh  as  ever.  It  was  now 
settled  that  she  was  to  win  the  money  ;  although  it  might  be 
that  Kelief,  who  was  fast  rising  in  favor,  might  make  her  '  run 
for  it.'  Indeed,  the  latter  did  not  seem  in  full  vigor  until  she 
had  run  two  heats  ;  and  now  her  nostrils  opened,  and  she  pawed 
the  ground,  as  if  just  brought  upon  the  course. 

"  Tliey  are  saddled  for  the  fourth  heat ;  and  here  is  to  be  a 
struggle  until  sixteen  miles  from  the  beginning  are  accom- 
plished. Black  Maria  is  in  no  way  distressed,  Relief  full  of 
spirit,  but  '  Trifle's  to  win  the  money.'  Off  they  go  ;  Relief 
takes  the  lead,  followed  by  Trifle,  and  then  the  black.  Miles 
are  passed  over,  and  yet  Relief  is  ahead. — '  How  is  this  ?  can't 
Trifle  pass  ?  Is  the  Jersey  mare  ahead  ? ' — She  is,  indeed  ;  and 
ahead  like  to  be.  A  better,  truer,  tougher,  and  more  spirited 
piece  of  stuft^  never  came  from  the  loins  of  old  Eclipse.  She 
takes  the  track  from  the  score.  Trifle  goes  at  her,  but  '  can't  do 
it.' — ^Three  miles  and  a  half  are  accomplished,  and  Black  Maria 
has  passed  Trifle,  and  is  close  at  the  heels  of  Jersey.  Now  they 
come  up  the  straight  side.  The  black  is  at  her,  and  Relief 
takes  the  whip  like  a  glutton.  Maria  comes  up  and  laps  her — 
she's  at  her  shoulder  ;  but  they  pass  the  stand,  and  Relief  takes 
the  heat  by  a  neck.     Time,  8.39. 

"  '  Huzza  for  Jersey  ! '  rings  over  the  course  ;  and  a  look  of 
pity  is  cast  upon  the  gallant  little  Trifle,  who  had  done  her 
utmost — '  Black  Maria  won't  come  again,'  says  a  wise  one,  with 
a  knowing  look  '  I  don't  know  that,'  says  a  Yorker.  '  If  she 
had  run  twenty  straight  yards  farther,  she  would  have  taken 
the  heat.'  '  She  is  distressed,'  is  the  reply.  '  Distressed  !  may 
he  she  is.  I  saw  her  lay  her  ears  back,  and  lash  out  with  her 
hind  feet,  after  the  boy  dismounted  from  the  sixteen  miles,  as 
if  her  sinews  were  of  whipcord.' 

"  Here  was  an  interesting  point,  five  heats,  in  all,  were  to  be 
run,  and  twenty  miles  to  be  passed  over.  '  The  like  was  never 
seen  on  this  course  before,'  says  a  Long  Islander,  '  Bottom's 
the  word— how  go  the  bets  ? '  '  At  a  stand  still.  Trifle's  dis- 
tressed ;  but  Lady  Relief  has  more  life  in  her  than  any  thing 
tliat  ever  ran  sixteen  miles  before.' 


THE   FIFTH    HEAT.  243 

"  Up  they  come  for  a  fifth  heat ;  Relief  all  fire,  Trifle  very 
sorry,  and  Black  Maria  now  begins  to  paw  the  ground  !  This 
she  had  not  done  before.  Ofi"  they  go  ;  Relief  ahead.  Trifle 
after  her,  and  Black  Maria  allowing  no  gap.  She  sticks  to  them 
like  a  spirit ;  and  in  the  nineteenth  mile  the  gallant  little  Trifle 
is  reluctantly  compelled  to  give  it  up.  The  Eclipse  mares  are 
obstinately  determined  to  'play  out  the  play,'  and  the  little 
chestnut  is  taken  off  the  track,  completely  '  done  up.'  Kow 
comes  a  struggle,  for  the  honors  of  a  twentieth  mile,  between 
two  half  sisters — whalebone  both — and  '  never  give  it  up '  's  the 
word.  Black  Maria  pushes  up  the  straight  side,  as  you  enter 
upon  the  fourth — twentieth — mile,  with  a  stride  that  counts  ter- 
ribly upon  the  steps  of  the  Lady,  who  has  relief  now  in  nothing 
but  name.  The  black  is  so  close  upon  her,  that  she  almost 
touches  her  heels.  She  pushes  round  the  turn,  and  goes  at  her 
on  the  straight  side,  like  a  quarter  horse.  They  brush  down 
the  straight  side  with  invincible  courage  ;  but  that  long  untiring 
stride  is  too  much  for  Relief.  Maria  gives  her  the  go  by,  takes 
the  track — keeps  it  in  spite  of  all  exertions — leads  round  the 
turn,  and  thunders  up  toward  the  judges'  stand,  hard  in  hand, 
untouched  by  whip  or  spur — passes  the  goal  for  the  twentieth 
time,  and  wins  the  race.     Time,  8.4T. 

"  Neither  of  the  Eclipse  mares  appeared  much  distressed, 
and  they  ran  the  last  mile  with  the  greatest  spirit  and  stoutness. 
Relief  is  a  nag  of  the  most  extraordinary  bottom.  She  seems 
to  become  fresher  after  twelve  miles,  and  then  runs  off*  as  gay 
as  a  lark.  As  for  Black  Maria,  she  is  literally  '  too  fast  for  the 
speedy,  and  too  strong  for  the  stout.'  She  ran  the  twentieth 
mile  with  a  freshness  and  vigor  that  surprised  every  body,  and 
the  spectators  at  last  actually  conceded  that  she  is  '  game  ! ' 
That  she  can  conquer  either  Relief  or  Trifle,  at  two  heats,  in  a 
match^  there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt ;  and  that  she  is  a 
'hard  one  to  beat'  in  any  race,  even  by  o. field,  all  sportsmen 
must  now  believe.  She  ran  at  her  antagonists  every  heat,  and 
at  last  let  them  know  what  it  was  to  run  for  the  honors  of  a 
twentieth  mile ! " 

Of  the  three  placed  first  in  this  memorable  race.  Black 
Maria  was  the  first  to  recover,  though  for  months  she  was  but 
the  shadow  of  herself.     She  came  out  in  the  following  May 


244  THE    HOKSE. 

against  a  strong  field,  and  won,  while  Trifle  was  crippled  and 
laid  np  until  the  September  season  of  the  ensuing  year.  Lady 
Belief,  as  game  a  filly  as  ever  started,  and  true  as  steel  to  the 
last,  died  within  a  few  weeks,  from  the  effects  of  a  cold 
and  exhaustion.  Who  that  was  present  that  day,  and  marked 
the  meek  expressive  glance  cast  up  towards  the  judges  by  one 
of  these  doomed  ones— Black  Maria — when  brought  up  to 
struggle  through  a  fifth  heat,  will  ever  forget  it  ? 

1833.    Same  Course,  Tuesday,  May  28— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $400,  conditions  as  before.     Three- 
mile  heats. 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  7  yrs.    .  ,15    1 

John  M.  Botts'  b.  c.  EoUa,  by  Gohanna,  out  of  Dairy  Maid,  4  yrs 4    14 

John  C.  Craig's  b.  m.  Virginia  Taylor,  by  Sir  Archy,  out  of  Coquette,  6  yrs.  .        .  .542 
Jos.  H.  Van  Mater's  b.  h.  Jackson,  by  John  Eichards,  out  of  Honesty,  6  yrs.      .        .         2    2    8 

Thos.  Pearsall's  gr.  f.  Alice  Gray,  by  Henry,  out  of  Sport's-mistress,  4  yrs.     .        .  .38  dist 
Time,  6.02— 6.07— 5.4S. 

A  tip-top  race,  every  inch  being  well  contested  ;  Black 
Maria's  5.48  in  a  third  heat  of  three  miles  has  not  been  equalled 
before  or  since,  to  our  knowledge  ;  her  time  is  the  more  remark- 
able, when  the  fact  is  considered  that  it  was  the  old  mare's  first 
appearance  after  her  race  of  twenty  miles  the  previous  October. 
Alice  Gray,  a  filly  of  very  fine  speed,  though  unfortunate  in 
this  race,  subsequently  placed  herself  near  the  head  of  the 
I^orthern  Turf.  She  is  now  a  magnificent  brood  mare,  in  the 
possession  of  Walter  Livingston,  Esq.,  who  has  bred  several 
very  blood-like  looking  colts  from  her  that  promise  to  "  follow 
in  the  footsteps  "  of  their  dam,  when  brought  to  the  post.  KoUa 
has  since  been  sold  by  Mr.  Botts,  if  we  mistake  not,  and  has 
been  standing  in  Yirginia  for  two  or  three  years. 

1838.    Dutchess  County  Course,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  T.,  Friday,  June  7- Jockey  Club  Purse,  $300, 

conditions  as  before.    Throe-mile  heats. 
John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  7  yrs.        .        .        .11 
Alfred  Sherman's  ch.  h.  De  Witt  Clinton,  by  Rattler,  out  of  Matilda,  5  yrs.        ...         2    2 

E.  Jackson's  b.  h.  Henry  Archy,  by  Henry,  dam  by  Eclipse,  5  yrs 3  dr 

Time,  5.42—6.04. 

The  time  of  the  first  heat  of  this  race  would  probably  have 
been  several  seconds  less,  had  the  field  been  able  to  drive 
Maria  ;  as  it  stands,  it  is  one  of  the  very  best  in  the  annals  of 
the  American  Turf.  After  her  race  in  May  on  the  Island, 
•  Maria  was  ordered  by  Mr.  Stevens  to  be  thrown  out  of  training, 
but  Bill  Patrick  had  her  out  after  dark  or  before  daylight,  every 
time  opportunity  afforded  without  danger  of  detection,  and 


TRAINING    ON    THE    SLY.  245 

galloped  her  on  the  sandy  road  leading  across  the  mouth  of 
Spring  Creek,  never  venturing  to  bring  her  out  on  the  private 
training  track.  Daring  one  of  these  nocturnal  gallopings,  some 
wag  in  the  secret,  frightened  Bill  half  to  death,  one  evening, 
with  the  information  that  J//".  Stevens  was  coming  down  the  road^ 
so  what  does  he  do  but  whip  down  to  the  mill,  and  getting  a 
grist,  actually  carried  it  home  on  the  mare's  back !  This  oc- 
curred within  less  than  a  fortnight  of  the  day  of  her  race.  To 
prevent  a  walk-over  at  Poughkeepsie,  Mr.  Stevens  finally  al- 
lowed his  trainer  to  put  her  in  condition  ;  she  had  only  a  week's 
galloping  exercise,  however,  and  was  then  brought  to  the  post, 
without  having  had  any  quick  or  long  work,  much  less  a  trial. 
She  ran  under  so  strong  a  pull  throughout  the  heat,  that  those 
who  saw  the  race,  including  her  owner  and  trainer,  are  firmly 
of  the  opinion  that  on  that  day  she  could  have  made  a  better 
race  at  four-mile  heats,  than  she  has  ever  done  before  or  since. 
The  time  of  the  third  mile  in  the  second  heat  was  1.50.  Three 
miles  at  that  rate  would  have  surpassed  any  performance  we 
know  of ;  and  we  can  scarce  doubt  from  this  and  various  other 
proofs  of  Black  Maria's  powers  of  endurance,  that  she  might, 
on  this  occasion,  have  kept  up  the  rate  of  her  first  heat  — 1.54 — 
one  other  mile,  making  the  four  in  7.36. 

Henry  Archy,  her  competitor  in  this  race,  has  been  "  making 
himself  generally  useful"  for  the  last  few  years,  in  Illinois, 
standing  for  mares  in  the  spring,  and  running  in  the  fall ;  he 
never  had  a  great  turn  of  speed,  or  he  would  have  been  distin- 
guished, for  a  horse  of  more  undoubted  stamina  and  thorough 
game  was  never  brought  to  the  post. 

1883.    Union  Course,  L.  I.,  Friday,  Oct.  5— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $500,  conditions  as  before.    Fonr- 
mile  heats. 

Thos.  Pearsall's  gr.  f.  Alice  Gray,  by  Henry,  out  of  Sport's-mistress,  4  yrs 11 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  7  yrs.    ...         22 

Jos.  H.  Van  Mater's  b.  b.  Jackson,  by  John  Richards,  out  of  Honesty,  6  yrs dlst. 

Time,  7.56—7.50. 

In  this  fine  race  the  "  gray  mare  proved  herself  the  better 
horse,"  though  Black  Maria  beat  her  before,  and  twice  after- 
wards. It  was  "  turn  about  and  turn  about "  with  the  two,  for 
in  four  races  they  were  quits,  each  having  twice  proved  the 
winner.     Mr.  Van  Mater,  some  time  after  this  race,  S' jld  Jack- 


246  THE    HORSE. 

son — who  was  amiss  on  this  occasion — to  go  South,  and  farther, 
of  him,  deponent  saith  not. 

1883.   Same  course,  Friday,  Oct.  31— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $300,  conditions  as  before.  Four-mile  heats. 

Col.  Wm.  K.  Johnson's  ch.  m.  Trifle,  by  Sir  Charles,  dam  by  Cicero,  5  yrs 11 

Walter  Livingston's  gr.  f.  Alice  Cray,  by  Henry,  out  of  Sport's-mistress,  4  yrs.  ...  22 
John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  7  yrs.        .        .        .    dist. 

Bela  Badger's  b.  c.  Priam,  by  John  Eichards,  4  yrs dist. 

Time,  7.49— T.56. 

The  reputation  of  the  three  mares  entered  in  this  race,  ex- 
cited a  great  sensation  in  sporting  circles,  and  immense  sums 
were  haid  out  about  them,  Kelying  upon  the  tried  game  of 
Black  Maria,  Mr.  Stevens  ordered  Gil.  Crane,  his  jockey,  not  to 
make  a  stroke  for  the  first  heat,  but  to  drop  just  within  the  dis- 
tance. Trifle  and  Alice  made  play  from  the  score,  and  main- 
tained it  to  the  end  ;  in  coming  up  tlie  straight  side  home  on 
the  last  quarter.  Crane  carelessly  pulled  Maria  back  so  far,  that 
she  was  shut  out  by  the  distance  flag  eighteen  inches.  He  was 
taken  off  the  mare,  and  discharged  on  the  spot.  In  the  great 
Twenty-Mile  race,  the  dead  heat  made  by  Trifle  was  thought 
to  be  entirely  owing  to  his  heedlessness. 

1834.    Same  course,  Friday,  May  9— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $1000,    conditions  as  before.    Foor- 
mile  heats. 

Capt.  E.  F.  Stockton's  bl.  c.  Shark,  own  brother  to  Black  Maria,  4  yrs 6    11 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  8  yrs.  .  .  3  2  2 
Maj.  James  M.  Sclden's  b.  c.  Charles  Kemble,  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  Gallatin,  4  yrs.  .14  4 
Walter  Livingston's  gr.  m.  Alice  Gray,  by  Henry,  out  of  Sport's-mistress,  5  yrs.   .        .         2    8    8 

Samuel  Laird's  b.  h.  Henry  Archy,  by  Henry,  dam  by  Eclipse,  6  yrs 4    5    5 

John  M.  Botts'  b.  h.  EoUa,  by  Gohanna,  out  of  Dairymaid,  5  yrs 5    * 

Time,  7.54—7.57—8.03.    *  Broke  down. 

A  stoutly  contested  and  spirited  race.  The  winner  was  sold 
soon  after,  for  the  largest  sum  ever  then  paid  in  this  country  for 
a  race-horse,  being  $17,500.  Some  odd  dozen  of  the  celebrated 
"  Bingham  "  wine  was  also  talked  of,  but  Mr.  Craig  would  not 
sell.  Failing  to  get  hold  of  a  few  dozen  in  this  way,  Capt. 
Stockton,  at  the  Club  Dinner,  shortly  after,  offered  to  run  his 
colt  Monmouth  against  Mr.  Craig's  Fanny  Cline,  a  match  of 
two  miles,  laying  $1,200  vs.  12  dozen  of  the  Bingham.  This, 
too,  was  a  failure,  and  in  a  double  sense,  for  though  Fanny  won 
the  match  and  the  $1,200,  Mr.  Craig,  upon  examination,  found 
that  his  vault  had  been  entered,  and  that  a  great  part  of  his 
stock  of  favorite  wine  was  missing !  Shark  was  withdrawn 
from  the  turf  after  the  Fall  season  of  1835,  and  made  his  first 


MAEIA    AND    ALICE    GRAY.  24:7 

two  seasons  as  a  stallion  at  Taylor's  Ferry,  Ya.,  at  $75  ;  in  1838 
he  stood  at  Charlotte  Court  House,  in  the  same  State,  but  is  now 
located  on  Long  Island,  in  view  of  the  scene  of  the  never-fading 
victories  won  by  himself  and  the  glorious  race  from  which  he 
sprung.  He  is  still  the  property  of  the  heirs  of  the  late  la- 
mented John  C.  Craig,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia. 

Charles  Kemble,  the  winner  of  the  first  heat  in  this  race, 
after  running  at  all  distances,  and  beating  some  of  the  best 
horses  of  his  day,  is  now  enjoying  his  otium  cum  dignitate ;  he 
stands  the  present  season  at  Chester-town,  Md. 

1834    Same  course,  Thursday,  June  5— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $400,  conditions  as  before.  Three- 
mile  heats. 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  8  yrs.        .        .  .11 

Samuel  Laird's  b.  h.  Henry  Archy,  by  Henry,  dam  by  Eclipse,  5  yrs 3    2 

Col.  Wm.  E.  Johnson's  b.  f.  Fanny  Oline,  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  Gallatin,  4  yrs.    .        .  .28 
Time,  6.03-6.11. 

Owing  to  previous  wet  weather  the  track  was  very  heavy. 
Black  Maria  was  the  favorite  at  odds,  and  won  handily. 

1834    Same  course,  Wednesday,  Oct.  8 — Jockey  Club  Purse,  $1000,  conditions  as  before.   Eour- 

mile  heats. 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  8  yrs.        .        .211 

Walter  Livingston's  gr.  m.  Alice  Gray,  by  Henry,  out  of  Sporfs-mistress,  5  yrs.   .        .         12    2 

Capt.  K.  F.  Stockton's  b.  c.  Monmonth,  by  John  Eichards,  out  of  Nettletop,  4  yrs.  .        .    3    dist. 

Time,  7.52—7.55—8.03. 

Alice  was  the  favorite,  and  at  very  long  odds,  after  the  first 
heat.  Black  Maria  running  unkindly  ;  she  let  out  a  kink,  how- 
ever, in  the  second  and  third,  and  won  both  cleverly.  Mon- 
mouth, the  following  season,  won  two  races  at  three-mile  heats ; 
in  1836,  with  121  lbs.  on  his  back,  he  won  a  race  at  two-mile 
heats  in  3.45 — 3.49,  and  another  in  3.56 — 3.48.  He  soon  after 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Capt.  Y.  IST.  Oliver,  of  the  Eclipse 
Course,  New  Orleans,  and  was  so  knocked  up  by  his  long  jour- 
ney South,  as  never  to  have  shown  to  advantage,  though  a  horse 
of  very  fine  speed.  He  is  now  standing  at  Basin  Spring,  Breck- 
enridge  County,  Ya. 

1834    Same  course,  Friday,  Oct  31— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $1000,  conditions  as  before.    Four-mile 

heats. 
Walter  Livingston's  gr.  m.  Alice  Gray,  by  Henry,  out  of  Sport's-mlstress,  5  yrs.    .        .        .11 
John  0.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  8  yrs.    ...        2    2 
Time,  7.59—8.12. 

It  was  the  gray  mare's  "  turn  "  to  win  this  time,  which  she 


248  THE   HORSE. 

did  with  ease  ;  three  weeks  before  Maria  beat  her  as  handily  in 
much  better  time. 

1834    Eagle  Course,  Trenton,  N.  J.,  Thursday,  Nov.  13— Purse,  $800,  free  for  all  ages ;  weights  the 

same  as  on  the  Union  Course.    Three-mile  heats. 
Maj.  Jas.  M.  Selden's  b.  c.  Charles  Kemble,  by  Sir  Archy,  out  of  Pilot's  dam  by  Gallatin, 

4  yrs 11 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  8  yrs.   ...        22 
Time,  5.50i— 5.51i. 

Kemble  won  handily  ;  he  was  considered  the  best  three-mile 
horse  in  Yirginia  of  his  day.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
Black  Maria  beat  him  a  long  way  off,  running  /bw?*-mile  heats 
in  the  spring  of  this  year. 

1835.    Union  Course,  L.  I.,  Friday,  May  8— -Jockey  Club  Purse,  $1000,  conditions  as  before.   Four- 
mile  heats. 

Samuel  Laird's  b.  h.  Henry  Archy,  by  Henry,  dam  by  Eclipse,  6  yrs 3    11 

John  C.  Stevens'  bl.  m.  Black  Maria,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Lady  Lightfoot,  9  yrs.  .  .  2  3  2 
Capt.  R.  F.  Stockton's  b.  h.  Monmouth,  by  John  Richards,  out  of  Nettletop,  5  yrs.  .  .12  3 
Joseph  Alston's  b.  h.  Daniel  O'Connell,  by  John  Richards,  dam  by  Eclipse,  5  yrs.  .        4    dist 

Wm.  Gibbon's  b.  h.  Milo,  by  Mens.  Tonson,  out  of  Meg  Dods,  5  yrs dist. 

Time,  7.55-8.00—8.15. 

After  distancing  Monmouth  and  beating  Henry  Archy  three 
times  in  their  prime,  they  took  advantage  of  her  want  of  con- 
dition, and  paid  off  a  portion  of  their  old  scores.  O'Connell 
soon  after  passed  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  P.  C.  Bush  of  St.  Louis, 
Mo.,  who  ran  him  successfully  in  the  West  at  all  distances. 
Milo,  who  was  a  much  better  horse  than  his  performance  on  this 
occasion  "  made  him  out,"  suddenly  died  in  the  fall  of  183T,  on 
his  way  to  the  Long  Island  races. 

This  was  the  last  performance  in  public  of  Black  Maria,  who 
was  now  withdrawn  from  the  turf  and  sent  to  Gohanna  tlien 
standing  on  Long  Island. 

RECAPITULATION. 

1.  1829.  Oct.     3— Union  Course,  L.  I Match 2  mile  heats won $6000 

2.  .  Oct.     8 — Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 3  mile  heats won 400 

3.  1830.  May  10 — Union  Course,  L.  I Sweepstakes  .  4  mile  heats lost 

4.  .  May  19 — Dutchess  County  Course,  N.Y.  Purse 3  mile  heats lost 

5.  .  Oct.     7 — Dutchess  County  Course,  N.Y.  Purse 4  milo  heats won 600 

6.  .  Oct.   27— Dutchess  County  Course,  N.Y.  Purse 4  mile  heats won 500 

7.  1831.  May  12— Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heats.. ..  lost 

8.  .  May  26— Dutchess  County  Course,  N.Y.  Purse 4  mile  heats won 600 

9.  .  Oct.     C — Dutchess  County  Course,  N.Y.  Purse 4  mile  heats lost 

10.  .  Oct.  20— Central  Course,  Md Poststake.. ..  4  mile  heats won 4500 

11.  .  Oct.    29— Central  Course,  Md Purse 4  mile  heats lost 

12.  18.32.  May  17— Dutchess  County  Course,  N.Y.  Purse 4  mile  heats won  ...       600 

13.  .  May  2-3— Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heats lost 

14.  .  Oct.     4— Dutchess  County  Course,  N.Y.  Purse 8  mile  heats won 800 


won... 

.  $600 

won... 

.   400 

won . . . 

.   300 

lost... 

lost.... 

lost... 

won... 

.   400 

won... 

.  1000 

lost... 

lost... 

lost-... 

RKCAPITULATION.  249 

15.  .  Oct  13 — Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heats . . . 

16.  1833.  May  28— Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 3  milo  heats. .. 

17.  .  June  7 — Dutchess  County  Course,  N.  T.  Purse 3  mile  heats . . . 

18.  .  Oct.     5— Union  Course.  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heiits . . . 

19.  .  Oct  31— Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heats. . . 

20.  1834  May    9— Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heats . . . 

21.  .  June  5 — Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 8  mile  heats. . . 

22.  .  Oct     5— Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heats.  -  - 

23.  .  Oct  31 — Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  milo  heats. . . 

24.  .  Nov.  13— Eagle  Course,  N.  J Purse 3  mile  heats  - . 

25.  1835.  May    8— Union  Course,  L.  I Purse 4  mile  heats-  - . 

Starting  twenty-five  times,  and  winning  in  thirteen  races, — eleven  of  them  Jockey  Club 

Paces,  at  three  and  four-mile  heats, — the  handsome  sum  of $14,900 

Seventeen  four-mile  races,  and  forty-two  heats  of  four  miles — making  168  miles. 

The  above  recapitulation  of  her  performances  fully  justifies, 
we  think,  the  high  opinion  we  have  expressed  in  the  course  of 
our  article,  of  Black  Maria's  surpassing  speed,  and  wonderful 
powers  of  endurance.  In  summing  up  the  large  amount  she 
won,  and  comparing  it  with  the  winnings  of  first-raters  of  a 
more  recent  date,  it  should  be  recollected,  that  while  she  was  on 
the  Turf,  the  Club  Purses  were  but  of  about  half  the  value  of 
those  given  at  the  present  day.  Trifle,  a  nonpareil,  and  the 
most  successful  racer  of  her  day,  won  but  $14,380  ;  Post  Boy,  a 
"  crack  "  of  later  date,  for  a  time  at  the  head  of  the  Northern 
Turf,  and  a  very  capital  performer,  won  only  $12,700,  while 
Mingo,  the  phenomenon,  who  ran  well  at  all  distances,  and  won 
for  himself  the  proud  title  of  the  "  Champion  of  the  North," 
won  but  $15,250  ;  Mingo's  winnings,  however,  were  mostly  in 
purses.  By  setting  down  the  purses  won  by  Black  Maria  at  the 
respective  suras  now  ofiered  for  three  and  four-mile  heats,  she 
would  have  left  the  Turf  a  winner  of  Eighteen  Thousand  Five 
Hundred  Dollar's  ! 

Black  Maria,  like  Post  Boy,  was  "  hammered  to  death ''  in 
training,  and  came  to  the  post  quite  as  often  amiss  as  in  condi- 
tion. When  "  fit,"  she  was  too  fleet  for  the  fast,  and  too  stout 
for  the  strong ;  another  reason  for  her  frequent  defeats,  was  owing 
to  the  management  of  her  high-spirited  owner,  of  whom  it  is  no- 
torious that  he  never  pays  forfeit — never  allows  a  walk  over, 
if  a  horse  in  his  stable  can  stand  on  three  legs,  and  is  the 
man  always  called  upon  to  make  up  a  fleld  or  a  stake,  and 
always  certain  to  do  it  without  consulting  his  interest  or  his 
trainer.  In  the  hands  of  a  gentleman  less  regardless  of  the 
gratification  of  the  public,  and  more  alive  to  his  own  interests, 


250  THE    HOKSE. 

it  is  very  doubtful  wliether  Black  Maria  would  not  have  ruu  on 
to  the  age  of  her  grand-dam,  and  with  equal  credit. 

In  1836  she  produced  a  bay  colt  by  Gohanna,  which  Mr. 
Stevens  appropriately  named  Terrific,  from  its  immense  size. 
It  is  a  colt  of  great  promise,  combining  the  best  racing  points 
of  both  sire  and  dam — at  six  weeks  old  Mr.  Stevens  refused 
$1,500  for  it.  It  makes  one  of  the  "string"  Mr.  Stevens  sent 
to  New  Orleans  last  January,  in  Yan  Leer's  charge. 

On  the  6th  of  March  last,  Mr.  Stevens  shipped  Black  Maria 
to  New  Orleans,  per  the  "  Nashville,"  in  company  with  Cora, 
Clara  Howard,  African,  Bonny  Black,  and  EthioiDia.  The  lot 
arrived  there  on  the  29th  of  that  month,  and  when  landed  on 
the  levee,  the  fine  old  mare  excited  great  admiration  by  her 
blood-like  appearance.  None  were  sold  here  but  Black  Maria  ; 
the  three  last  named  were  subsequently  taken  to  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
where  Van  Leer  sold  them  for  $5,000,  to  Messrs.  Shacklett, 
Sloan  &  Overton ;  they  came  out  at  the  Fall  Meetings  at  St. 
Louis,  and  were  all  winners,  carrying  oif  the  purses  for  three 
and  four- mile  heats.  Cora  and  Clara  Howard  were  sent  to 
Alabama,  the  first  to  be  stinted  to  imp.  Glencoe,  and  the  last  to 
imp.  Leviathan,  where  they  remain,  still  owned  by  Mr.  Stevens. 

Black  Maria,  while  at  New  Orleans,  was  purchased  by  the 
Hon.  Balie  Peyton,  in  company  with  his  friends.  Dr.  J.  G. 
Chalmers,  of  that  city,  and  J.  S.  Yeager,  Esq.,  of  Yicksburg, 
Miss.,  for  $4,000,  a  sum  much  below  her  value ;  not  above  a 
year  previous,  an  ofifer  of  $5,500,  made  for  her,  through  us,  was 
refused.  Mr.  Peyton  sent  her  at  once  to  imp.  Luzborough,  and 
at  the  same  time  proposed  a  Produce  Stake  for  colts  and  fillies 
dropped  Spring  of  1839,  to  come  off  over  the  Nashville 
— ^Tenn. — Course,  during  the  Fall  Meeting  of  the  Jockey  Club 
in  1843,  with  a  subscription  of  $5,000  each,  $1,000  forfeit,  four- 
mile  heats.  Black  Maria's  produce  headed  the  list  of  nomi- 
nations, and  when  the  stake  closed  in  January  lust,  there  were 
twenty-nine  subscribers,  making  the  stake  amount  to  the  enor- 
mous sum  of  One  Hundred  and  Forty-Five  Thousand  Dol- 
lars !  No  stake  at  all  comparable  with  this,  has  ever  been 
made  up  in  this  country  or  Europe,  so  far  as  the  amount  of 
money  is  concerned,  and  twenty-nine  better  mares  cannot  be 
selected,  in  England  or  America. 


THE  PEDIGKEES, 

PERFORMANCES,    AND    CHARACTERISTICS 

OP 

WAGNER    AND    GEEY    EAGLE. 

At  no  time,  probably,  since  the  commencement  of  horse-racing 
in  America,  has  the  Turf  stood  higher,  or  been  more  ably  repre- 
sented, than  in  the  year  1839. 

In  that  year  Boston,  probably  the  best  race-horse  that  ever 
ran  on  an  American  track,  was  in  his  prime,  and  almost,  one 
might  say,  unbeaten ;  for  having  started  twenty-five  times,  and 
received  forfeit  twice,  he  had  suffered  but  two  defeats,  one,  in  his 
very  first  race,  having  bolted  while  running  on  the  lead  and 
looking  like  a  winner  ;  the  other,  in  a  race  of  two-mile  heats  at 
Petersburgh,  Virginia,  in  which  he  was  outfooted  by  Ports- 
mouth. 

In  that  year  ran  "Wagner,  G-ano,  Treasurer,  Clarion,  Balie 
Peyton,  Portsmouth,  Decatur,  and  Grey  Eagle ;  and  the  mares 
Omega,  Andi-ewetta,  Sarah  Bladen,  and  others  scarcely  inferior 
in  renown. 

The  crack  mare  Fashion,  in  her  two-year-old  form,  had  not 
come  upon  the  scene  of  her  triumphs,  and  the  day  when  the 
matchless  Boston  should  find  his  match  was  not  yet,  even  in 
anticipation. 

Not  one  of  the  animals  named  above,  but  was  a  real  race- 
horse, a  good  one  and  no  mistake,  though  differing  in  excellence 
the  one  from  the  other. 

All  had  their  sanguine  fi-iends  and  backers,  and  more  than 
one  was  believed  by  his  own  especial  partisans  to  be  invincible. 


252  THE   HORSE. 

Of  none  is  this  more  true  than  of  tlie  two  gallant  animals, 
whose  names  are  prefixed,  and  whose  gi-andest  exploit  I  am 
about  to  borrow  from  the  Turf  Eegister  of  1840,  for  which  it 
was  incomparably  reported  by  my  friencl  Wm.  T.  Porter. 

"Wagner  in  his  five-year-old  forai,  was  already  a  tried  horse, 
of  proved  speed,  courage,  and  bottom,  a  distinguished  winner, 
and  even,  in  the  high-flown  aspirations  of  his  owner,  capable 
to  compete  with  Boston.  He  was,  at  least  the  equal  of  any 
other  horse  in  America  of  his  day ;  and  not  long  afterward,  a 
distinguished  writer  was  found  in  the  columns  of  the  Spirit  of 
the  Times  to  maintain  that,  up  to  this  period,  the  great  son  of 
Timoleon  had  displayed  no  manifest  sui^eriority  over  him. 

He  had  been  in  training  continually  since  his  third  year ;  in 
1838,  he  had  won  three  races  of  four-mile  heats,  and  two  of 
two-mile  heats,  beating  Extio  at  New  Orleans  in  7.44-Y.5T — 
considered  in  those  days  all  but  the  very  best  time. 

He  was  a  beautiful  chestnut  horse  of  fifteen  and  a  half  hands, 
with  a  white  blaze  on  his  face,  and  two  white  hind  feet.  He 
was  got  by  Sir  Charles — he  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  imp.  Citizen, 
gd.  by  Commutation,  g.  gd.  by  imp.  Daredevil,  g.  g.  gd.  by  imp. 
Shark,  g.  g.  g.  gd.  by  imp.  Fearnought — out  of  Maria  West  by 
Marion,  her  dam  Ella  Crump,  by  imp.  Citizen,  gd.  by  Hunts- 
man, g.  gd.  by  Wildair,  g.  g.  gd.  by  Fearnought,  g.  g.  g.  gd. 
by  Janus,  &c. 

Marion  was  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  Citizen,  gd.  by  Alder- 
man, g.  gd.  by  Roebuck  out  of  a  Herod  mare. 

Grey  Eagle  was  in  his  fourth  year,  a  magnificent  horse  nearly 
sixteen  hands  in  height,  said  to  be  of  almost  perfect  symmetry, 
although  scarcely  equal  in  his  quarters  to  his  forehand,  which 
is  described  as  sumptuous.  His  color,  as  his  name  indicates, 
was  a  fine  silvery  gray. 

In  his  three-year-old  form  he  had  won  two  races  of  two-mile 
heats,  in  3.41 — 3.43 — 3.48 — and  3.44  respectively,  and  was 
honestly  believed  by  his  owner,  and  by  Kentuckian  sportsmen 
in  general,  to  be  equal  to  any  thing  in  America,  both  for  speed 
and  bottom ;  although,  in  truth,  this  opinion  must  be  regarded 
rather  as  surmise  than  as  judgment,  since  his  powers  had  not 
yet  been  sufficiently  tested  to  justify  such  boundless  confidence. 


PEDIGEEK    OF    GREY    EAGLE.  253 

It  is  but  fair  to  add,  that  his  running,  in  the  wonderful  races 
which  are  to  be  described,  was  such  as  to  prove  that  this  confi- 
dence was  not  misplaced — was  such,  indeed,  as  to  render  it 
probable  that,  had  he  been  ridden  by  a  jockey  competent  to 
make  the  most  of  his  powers,  he  might  have  been  the  winner  in 
the  first  match — in  which  case  he  probably  would  not  have  been 
lost  to  the  turf,  by  the  rash,  and,  as  I  must  consider  it,  cruel 
trial,  of  running  a  second  four-mile  race  of  scarcely  paralleled 
severity,  within  five  days. 

Grey  Eagle  was  got  by  Woodpecker — ^he  by  Imp.  Dragon — 
dam,  Irby's  Daredevil  mare,  grandam  by  old  Wildair,  g.  gr. 
dam  by  Fearnought,  etc. — out  of  Ophelia  by  Wild  Medley,  gd. 
Ophelia  by  Grey  Diomed,  g.  gd.  Primrose  by  Apollo,  g.  g.  gd. 
by  imp.  Granby,  g.  g.  g.  gd.  by  imp.  Figure,  &c. 

Wild  Medley  was  got  by  Old  Medley,  dam  by  Wildair,  gd. 
by  Ti-istram  Shandy,  g.  gd.  Sportley  by  Imp.  Janus,  g.  g.  gd. 
Gen.  Nelson's  imp.  Spanish  mare.  There  are  no  less  than  four 
Grey  Diomeds  and  seven  Apollos  in  Edgar's  Stud  Book,  and  it 
is  not  stated  which  of  these  horses  are  intended.  They  are  all, 
however,  of  good  blood. 

The  description  which  here  ensues  has  been  considered,  by 
competent  judges,  to  be  the  finest  specimen  of  turf-writing  in 
the  English  language,  and  if  the  laudari  a  laiidato  be  fame  in 
literary  matters,  we  know  no  one  who  has  derived  more  from  a 
single  essay  than  the  writer  of  the  narrative  annexed. 


WAGNEE  AND  GREY  EAGLE'S  RACES. 

The  editor  of  this  magazine  had  the  pleasure  of  attending  the 
last  meeting  of  the  Louisville  Jockey  Club,  and  witnessing  the 
two  splendid  races  between  Wagner  and  Grey  Eagle.  Those 
who  have  noticed  the  spirit  with  which  every  thing  connected 
with  breeding  and  racing  is  carried  on  at  present,  in  Kentucky, 
will  hardly  be  surprised  to  hear  that  the  late  meeting  has  never 
been  equalled  in  the  excellence  of  the  sport,  or  in  the  number 
and  character  of  the  visitors.  Turfmen  and  other  distinguished 
strangers  from  the  neighboring  States  mustered  in  great  force  ; 


254  THE    HORSE. 

while  the  Kentuckians  themselves  turned  out  in  such  numbers, 
that  the  hotels  and  lodging  houses  literally  overilowed.  A  week 
of  i^ore  delightful  weather  we  have  rarely  known.  The  fields 
were  large  every  day  ;  the  horses  ran  well ;  "  all  the  world  and 
his  wife  "  were  on  the  course ;  the  pressure  was  forgotten,  and 
all  appeared  to  enjoy  themselves  without  stint  or  measure. 

In  addition  to  the  brilliant  report  of  "  N.  of  Arkansas  "  in  the 
Spirit  of  the  Times,  the  editor,  since  his  return,  has  given  his 
impressions  of  the  meeting,  in  the  columns  of  that  paper.  Many 
readers  of  this  magazine  have  expressed  a  desire  that  we  should 
also  give  them  a  report  of  the  two  great  races. 

In  compliance  with  the  general  desire  of  these,  we  proceed 
to  give  our  own  impressions  of  the  two  races,  which  have  con- 
tributed in  an  eminent  degree  to  give  "Wagner  and  Grey  Eagle 
the  high  and  enduring  reputation  they  now  enjoy.  The  races 
during  the  week  were  characterized  by  good  fields,  strong  run- 
ning, fine  weather,  and  an  attendance  unparalleled  in  numbers 
and  respectability.  The  Oakland  Course  was  in  the  finest  pos- 
sible order,  the  stewards  were  in  uniform  and  well  mounted, 
and  the  arrangements  of  the  proprietor,  Col.  Oliver,  and  of  the 
club,  for  the  gratification  and  convenience  of  their  guests,  were 
not  only  in  good  taste,  but  complete  in  all  respects. 

We  have  not  roonj  to  speak  in  this  place  of  a  variety  of  in- 
teresting circumstances  connected  with  the  meeting,  but  shall 
be  pardoned  for  alluding  to  the  unusual  number  of  distin- 
guished individuals  present,  and  the  blaze  of  beauty  reflected 
from  the  Ladies'  Pavilion,  on  the  occasion  of  the  first  race  be- 
tween the  champions  of  Louisiana  and  Kentucky.  The  number 
of  ladies  in  attendance  was  estimated  at  eight  hundred,  while 
nearly  two  thousand  horsemen  were  assembled  on  the  field. 
The  stands,  the  fences,  the  trees,  the  tops  of  carriages,  and  every 
eminence  overlooking  the  course,  were  crowded  ;  probably  not 
less  than  ten  thousand  persons  composed  the  assemblage,  com- 
prising not  only  several  distinguished  Senators,  and  nearly  the 
entire  Kentucky  delegation  in  Congress,  with  their  families,  but 
all  the  elite  of  the  beauty  and  fashion  of  the  State. 

Among  the  earliest  on  the  ground  were  the  Hon.  Judge 
Porter,  of  Louisiana,  the  distinguished  ex-Senator,  and  Mr.  Clay. 
His  colleague  in  the  Senate,  Mr.  Crittenden,  soon  followed,  with 


THE    OAKLAND   MEETING.  255 

Gen.  Atkinson,  Major  Stewart,  and  Capt.  Alexander,  of  tlie 
army,  Judge  Woolley,  Gov.  Poindexter,  Judge  Rowan,  the 
Hon.  Messrs.  Menifee,  Allan,  Letcher,  Hardin,  Graves,  Hawes, 
etc.  Among  the  guests  of  the  Club,  well  known  to  the  sporting 
world,  we  noticed  J.  S.  Skinner,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  W.  M. 
Anderson,  Esq.,  of  Ohio,  Col.  C.  F.  M.  ISToland,  of  Arkansas,  the 
Messrs.  Kenner,  Mr.  Slidell,  Mr.  Parker,  and  Mr.  Beasley,  of 
Louisiana,  Mr.  McCargo,  Mr.  Beasley,  and  Capt.  Bacon  of  Yir- 
ginia,  Mr.  Geo.  Cheatham,  of  Tenn.,  Maj.  Fleming,  of  Alabama, 
and  a  great  number  more  whose  names  have  escaped  us. 

Good  breeding  forbids  an  enumeration  of  the  distinguished 
throng  of  belles.  The  young  miss  just  from  the  trammels  of 
school,  flush  with  joy  and  fears,  the  budding,  blooming  girl  of 
sweet  sixteen,  the  more  stately  and  elegant  full-blown  woman, 
the  dark-eyed  Southerner,  with  her  brown  complexion  and 
matchless  form,  the  blue-eyed  Northerner  with  her  dimpled 
cheek  and  fair  and  spotless  beauty,  were  gathered  here  in  one 
lustrous  galaxy.  The  gentlemen  were  unmatched  for  variety  ; 
the  Bar,  the  Bench,  the  Senate,  and  the  Press,  the  Army  and 
the  Navy,  and  all  the  et  ceteras  that  pleasure  or  curiosity 
attracted,  were  here  represented. 

We  are  very  much  tempted  to  essay  to  describe  a  few  of 
these  radiant  belles — had  kind  Heaven  made  us  a  poet,  like 
Prentice,  we  would  immortalize  them  ;  as  we  are  only  a  proser, 
we  can  merely  detail  them.  If  any  demand  by  what  right  we 
allude  so  pointedly  to  them,  surely  we  may  ask  what  right  they 
have  to  be  so  beautiful  ?  There  was  one  with  a  form  of  perfect 
symmetry,  and  a  countenance  not  only  beautiful,  but  entirely 
intellectual ;  like  Halleck's  Fanny,  she  may  have  been  "  younger 
once  than  she  is  now,"  but  she  is,  and  will  ever  be,  "  a  thing  to 
bless — all  full  of  life  and  loveliness."  With  a  purely  Grecian 
bust  and  classic  head,  and  with  an  eye  as  dark  as  the  absence 
of  all  light,  beaming  with  a  lustre  that  eclipses  all,  her  figure 
varied  itself  into  every  grace  that  can  belong  either  to  rest  oi 
motion.  And  there  was  a  reigning  belle,  in  the  spring-time  of 
her  youth  and  beauty,  with  a  face  beaming  with  perfect  happi- 
ness ;  it  was  like  a  "  star-lit  lake  curling  its  lips  into  ripples  in 
some  stream  of  delight,  as  the  west-wind  salutes  them  with  its 
balmy  breath,  and  distui-bs  their  placid  slumber."     It  was  the 


256  THE    IIOKSE, 

realization  of  Byron's  idea  of  "  music  breathing  o'er  the  face." 
There  comes  a  bride — and  from  tlie  East.  too.  A  peep  at  her 
face,  ahnost  hid  by  clustering  braids  of  raven  hair,  displays  a 
belle  of  an  Atlantic  city,  and  ere  we  have  time  to  ask  her  name, 
a  lovely  blonde  sweeps  by  in  a  gay  mantilla,  changeable  as  the 
hues  of  evening,  with  a  hat  whiter  than  the  wing  of  a  dove, 
and  a  face  faultless  as  Nesera.  It  would  puzzle  a  Sphinx  to 
divine  the  cause  of  her  radiant  smile.  Walks  she  fancy  free  ? 
Has  Cupid's  bolt  passed  her  innocuous  ?  In  the  centre  of  the 
Pavilion  stand  two  rival  belles,  of  a  style  of  beauty  so  varied  as 
to  atti-act  marked  attention.  The  face  and  figure  of  one  is 
rounded  to  the  complete  fulness  of  the  mould  for  a  Juno  ;  while 
the  other,  with  the  form  of  a  sylph,  and  the  eyes  of  an  angel, 
is  the  impersonation  of  delicacy  and  loveliness.  And  there 
is  a  lady  from  the  northernmost  extremity  of  the  Republic, 
nearly  allied  to  the  Patrick  Henry  of  the  Southwest,  with  eyes 
of  the  sweetest  and  most  tranquil  bine  "  that  ever  reflected  the 
serene  heaven  of  a  happy  hearth — eyes  to  love,  not  wonder  at — 
to  adore  and  rely  upon,  not  admire  and  tremble  for."  And  then 
there  was  that  beautiful  belle  from  Scott  County,  and  that  bril- 
liant wit  from  Lexington  ;  here,  the  pearl  wreath  strove  to  rival 
the  fairer  brow — the  ruby,  a  rubier  lip — the  diamond,  a  brigliter 
eye  ;  there,  the  cornelian  borrowed  from  the  damask  cheek  a 
deeper  hue  ;  the  gossamer  floated  round  a  lighter  form — the 
light  plume  nodded  over  a  lighter  heart. 

But  what  grace  can  flowers  or  sweeping  plumes  confer  when 
the  rich  smile  of  beauty  is  parting  her  vermilion  lips,  and  the 
breath  of  the  morning,  added  to  the  excitement  of  the  occasion, 
have  given  a  ripeness  to  her  cheeks,  and  a  fire  to  her  eye,  which, 
to  our  bachelor  taste,  would  be  worth  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  to 
enjoy,  as  we  did  at  that  moment.  Who  can  fail  to  detect  the 
graceful  being  on  our  left,  in  a  Parisian  hat,  lined  with  violets, 
whose  soft  liquid  eye,  and  raven  braids  render  her  the  fairest 
gem  in  the  brilliant  cluster  of  Western  beauties  ?  The  flashing 
eyes  of  a  dark-browed  matron  from  Missouri  are  roving  restlessly 
over  the  nodding  sea  of  heads  beneath  ;  and  the  pensive  smile 
of  a  fair  lily,  just  home  from  school,  has  become  absolutely 
radiant  as  she  shakes  back,  from  her  open  brow,  a  flood  of  glis- 
tening ringlets,  and  gazes  down  upon  the  multitude  with  the 


THE   NOMmATIONS.  257 

innocent  gaze  of  a  young-eyed  seraph.  But  how  shall  our  pen 
do  homage  to  the  daughters  of  Old  Kentuck,  whose  striking  Di 
Vernon  beauty,  with  their  dark  lustrous  eyes  and  sable  tresses, 
is  only  rivalled  by  the  high  culture  bestowed  upon  their  minds, 
and  the  attraction  of  those  feminine  accomplishments  which 
'*  gild  refined  gold,"  and  render  them  among  the  loveliest  and 
most  fascinating  women  within  the  circuit  of  the  sun?  The 
waters  of  Lethe  must  flow  deep  over  our  souls,  to  banish  the 
memory  of  the  bouquets  and  gloves  we  lost  and  won  upon  that 
day  !  The  evening  festivities  that  followed — the  brilliant  dance, 
the  plaintive  song  that  "  lapt  us  in  Elysium," — and  she,  too,  the 
fairy  masquerader,  in  the  Suliote  cap  and  bodice,  lives  she  not 
last,  as  well  as  first,  in  our  remembrance  ? 

But  our  pages  forbid  a  longer  retrospection.  The  hospitalities 
and  courtesies  of  the  West,  joined  to  the  smile  of  her  beauteous 
women,  are  indelibly  impressed  upon  our  hearts,  and  shall  be 
freshly  remembered  when  we  pledge  our  warmest  friends  in  the 
generous  wine-cup. 

The  occasion  of  this  brilliant  assembly  was  the  stake  for  all 
ages,  four-mile  heats,  which  closed  on  the  1st  of  January,  1839, 
with  ten  subscribers  at  $2,000  each,  half  forfeit,  as  follows  ; — 

1— T.  N.  Oliver  &  Miles  W.  Dickey,  of  Kentucky,  named  gr.  c.  Grey  Eagle,  by  Woodpecker,  out 

of  Ophelia,  by  Wild  Medley,  4  yrs. — Dress,  Red,  Blue,  and  Orange. 
2 — "Wm.  T.  Ward,  of  Kentucky,  named  b.  m.  Mary  Vatighan,  by  Waxy,  out  of  Betty  Bluster, 

by  imp.  Bluster,  5  yrs. — Dress,  Blue  and  White. 
8 — Willa  Viley,  of  Kentucky,  named  ch.  £  Queen  Mary,  by  Bertrand,  dam  by  Brimmer,  4  yrs.— 

Dress,  White  and  Green. 
4 — Geo.  N.  Sanders  &  Lewis  Sanders,  Jr.,  of  Kentucky,  named  b.  c.  Occident,  by  Bertrand,  out 

of  Diamond,  by  Turpin's  Florizel,  4  yrs. — Dress,  White. 
5 — Sidney  Burbridge,  of  Kentucky,  named  b.  c.  Tarlton,  by  Woodpecker,  dam  by  Eobin  Gray, 

5  yrs. — Dress,  not  declared. 
6 — Jas.  L.  Bradley  &  H.  B.  Steel,  of  Kentucky,  named  ch.  c.  Haick-Eye,  by  Sir  Lovell,  out  of 

Pressure's  dam,  by  Jenkins'  Sir  William,  4  yrs. — Dress,  Orange  and  Black. 
7 — Archie  Cheatham,  of  Virginia,  named  b.  h.  Billy  Townes,  by  Imp.  Fylde,  dam  by  Virginian, 

5  yrs. — Dress,  Purple  and  Ked. 
8— Jas.  S.  Garrison,  of  Louisiana,  named  ch.  h.  Wagner,  by  Sir  Charles,  out  of  Maria  West,  by 

Marion,  5  jts. — Dress,  Eed  and  Eed. 
9 — Wm.  Wynn,  of  Virginia,  named  b.  c.  Picton,  by  Imp.  Luzborough,  out  of  Isabella,  by  Sir 

Archy,  5  yrs. — ^Dress,  not  declared. 
10— Wm.  Buford,  Jr.,  of  Kentucky,  named  ch.  f.  Musidora,  by  Medoc,  dam  by  Kosciusko,  4  yrs. — 

Dress,  not  declared. 

The  race  came  oif  on  Monday,  the  30th  of  September.     Of 
the  ten  nominations,  four  only  came  to  the  post — Wagner,  Grey 
Eagle,  Queen  Mary,  and  Hawk-Eye.     Of  the  other  six.  Tarlton 
Vol.  I.— 17  ^ 


258  THE    HOKSE. 

and  Musiclora  had  given  way  in  training ;  Picton  was  in  Ten- 
nessee, and  complaining  ;  Occident's  trials  would  not  justify  his 
starting  ;  Billy  Townes  and  Mary  Yaughan  were  on  the  ground, 
but  not  up  to  the  mark  in  condition.  From  the  day  the  stake 
closed,  the  betting  had  been  going  on  with  spirit  in  different 
sections  of  the  country,  increasing  daily  in  amount  as  the  race 
drew  nigh.  From  the  first  Wagner  was  decidedly  the  favorite  ; 
and  when  it  became  reduced  almost  to  a  certainty  that  not 
above  six  would  start,  the  betting  was  about  50  to  75  on  him  vs. 
the  field.  For  many  months  previous  to  the  race,  and  before  it 
was  known  how  many  would  start,  odds  were  offered,  from  New 
York  to  New  Orleans,  on  Wagner  and  Billy  Townes  against  the 
field.  Immense  sums  were  laid  out  at  odds,  in  Kentucky,  on 
Grey  Eagle's  winning  the  first  heat,  and  in  many  instances  he 
was  backed  against  Wagner  for  the  race.  In  consequence  of 
the  unlimited  confidence  felt  by  the  Kentuckians  in  the  "  foot " 
of  Grey  Eagle,  it  was  resolved  by  the  Wagner  party  not  to  run 
for  the  first  heat,  unless  circumstances  should  occur  which  might 
render  it  an  easy  thing  for  their  horse.  But  the  day  before  the 
race,  a  commission  from  New  Orleans  was  received,  offering  a 
large  sum  on  Wagner's  beating  the  gray  the  first  heat,  which 
induced  them  to  change  this  determination ;  indeed,  the  induce- 
ment to  run  for  it  was  a  pretty  substantial  one,  for  they  could 
lose  nothing,  and  might  win  several  thousands — we  do  not  feel 
at  liberty  to  say  how  many,  or  who  were  the  parties  ;  it  is  enough 
that  they  were  keen,  and  also  successful.  Two  days  before  the 
race,  Mr.  McCargo  gave  Billy  Townes  a  trial  with  Missouri  and 
Texana,  and  though  the  result  was  entirely  satisfactory,  so  far 
as  his  action  was  concerned,  he  soon  after  cramped  to  such  a 
degree  that  it  was  at  once  declared  that  he  would  not  be  started. 
Mary  Yaughan,  we  believe,  was  plated  for  the  race,  but  not 
being  quite  up  to  the  mark,  she  also  paid  forfeit.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  race,  it  being  understood  pretty  thoroughly  that 
Wagner,  Grey  Eagle,  Queen  Mary,  and  Hawk-Eye  only  would 
start,  out  of  the  ten  nominations,  "business"  commenced  in 
earnest,  Wagner  being  freely  oftered  against  the  field,  and  as 
freely  taken,  while  Grey  Eagle  was  backed  at  small  odds  for  the 
first  heat. 

The  "  call "  for  the  horses  was  sounded  at  a  quarter  to  one 


THE  ■  HORSES. 


o'clock,  and  soon  after  all  eyes  were  directed  toward  a  motley 
grouj)  approaching  from  Mr.  Garrison's  stable :  "  with  stately 
step  and  slow,"  the  proud  champion  of  Louisiana  made  his 
appearance.  He  was  directly  stripped,  and  a  finer  exhibition 
of  the  perfection  to  which  the  trainer's  art  can  be  carried,  we 
have  rarely  seen.  His  coat  and  eye  were  alike  brilliant. 
Wagner  is  a  light  gold  chestnut,  with  a  roan  stripe  on  the  right 
side  of  his  face,  and  white  hind  feet — about  fifteen  hands  and  a 
half  high.  His  head  is  singularly  small,  clean,  and  bony,  set  on 
a  light  but  rather  long  neck ;  forehanded,  he  resembles  the  pic- 
tures of  his  sire,  and  in  his  carriage  is  said  to  resemble  him. 
His  shoulder  is  immensely  strong,  running  very  well  back  into  a 
good  middle  piece,  which  is  well  ribbed  home.  One  of  the  finest 
points  about  him  is  his  great  depth  of  chest ;  few  horses  can 
measure  with  him  from  the  point  of  the  shoulder  to  the  brisket. 
His  arms  are  heavily  muscled  like  Mingo's,  with  the  tendons 
standing  out  in  bold  relief.  He  has  uncommonly  strong  and 
wide  hips,  a  good  loin,  remarkably  fine  stifles  and  thighs,  with 
as  fine  hocks  and  legs  as  ever  stood  under  a  horse.  Wagner  has 
been  in  training  ever  since  his  3  yr.  old,  and  has  travelled  over 
three  thousand  miles,  without  three  weeks'  rest  this  season  !  Mr. 
Garrison  commencing  galloping  him  just  four  weeks  previous 
to  this  race ;  he  had  not  even  been  turned  loose  in  a  paddock. 

A  murmur,  which  was  soon  lost  in  a  suppressed  cheer  at  the 
head  of  the  quarter  stretch,  announced  to  the  multitude  about 
the  stand  the  approach  of  Orey  Eagle  j  as  he  came  up  in  front 
of  the  stand,  his  lofty  carriage  and  flashing  eye  elicited  a  burst 
of  applause,  which  told  better  than  words  can  express  the  intense 
and  ardent  aspirations  felt  in  his  success,  by  every  son  and 
daiighter  of  Kentucky.  Clinton,  his  trainer,  immediately  stripped 
off  his  sheet  and  hood,  and  a  finer  specimen  of  the  high-mettled 
racer  was  never  exhibited.  He  was  in  condition  to  run  for  a 
man's  life — a  magnificent  gray,  nearly  sixteen  hands  high,  with 
the  step  of  a  gazelle  and  the  strength  of  a  Bucephalus.  Mr. 
Burbridge  had  told  us  that  of  one  thing  he  was  confident — his 
horse  might  want  foot,  but  of  his  game  he  was  certain  ;  the  cor- 
rectness of  his  judgment  the  sequel  will  show.  In  the  hands  of 
Clinton,  who,  by-the-by,  is  a  Kentuckian,  not  above  seven  and 
twenty  years  of  age,  Grey  Eagle  had  never  lost  a  heat ;  the 


260 


THE    HOR8K. 


previous  October,  he  won  a  two-mile  Sweepstakes,  over  this 
course,  in  3.41 — 3.43| ;  and  a  week  afterwards  repeated  tlie 
race  in  3.48 — 3.44.  His  form  indicates  more  power  of  endur- 
ance than  any  hoi'se  we  ever  saw  in  Kentucky  ;  from  the  girth 
forward  his  shape  and  make  could  hardly  be  improved,  if  he 
merely  had  the  delicate,  finely-tapered  ears  of  a  Sir  Charles,  or 
a  Wild  Bill.  Standing  behind  him,  his  quarters  display  a  fine 
development  of  muscle,  but  many  would  call  them  light  in  pro- 
portion to  his  size  and  forehand ;  in  this  respect  he  closely  re- 
sembles Priam.  His  coupling,  thigh,  and  stifle,  are  miexcep- 
tionably  good,  and  his  hocks  come  well  down  to  the  ground, 
giving  him  great  length  from  their  point  to  that  of  the  whirl- 
bone.  His  legs  are  clean,  broad,  and  flat,  with  the  hamstrings 
and  leaders  beautifully  developed — no  son  of  Whip  ever  had  a 
finer  set  of  limbs  under  him. 

Two  chestnuts  next  challenged  the  public's  attention ;  the 
first  was  Queen  Mary,  a  very  blood-like  looking  filly,  with 
white  hind  feet,  that  a  single  glance  would  have  shown  to  be  a 
daughter  of  Bertrand.  She  measures  about  15^  hands,  is  well 
put  up,  and  when  running  in  good  form,  must  be  a  dangerous 
lady  to  trifle  with.  Hawk-Eye,  as  we  remember  him,  is  a  heavy 
moulded  colt,  of  nearly  15|  hands,  with  a  star  and  white  fore 
feet ;  without  the  foot  or  the  endurance  of  his  half  brother, 
Pressure,  he  presents  to  the  eye  no  such  game  appearance. 
We  trust  he  was  not  himself  on  this  occasion,  or  we  should  wish 
"  ne'er  to  look  upon  his  like  again,"  for  he  cut  a  very  sony 
figure  in  this  party.  Both  himself  and  the  Bertrand  filly  have 
been  winners,  and  the  latter  has  ever  been  looked  upon  as  a 
performer  of  great  promise. 

At  half-past  one  o'clock,  the  jockeys  having  received  their 
orders  from  the  judges,  the  order  was  given  to  "  clear  the  course." 
Cato,  called  Kate,  in  a  richly-embroidered  scarlet  dress,  was 
put  upon  Wagner ;  he  is  a  capital  jockey,  and  rode  nearly  up 
to  his  weight,  110  pounds.  The  rider  engaged  for  Grey  Eagle, 
lost  the  confidence  of  his  owners  just  before  the  race,  and  at  the 
eleventh  hour  they  were  obliged  to  hunt  up  another.  StepJien 
Welch,  a  three-year-old  rider,  was  selected,  though  obliged  to 
carry  thirteen  pounds  dead  weight  in  shot-pouches  on  his  sad- 
dle !   The  friends  of  Grey  Eagle,  however,  had  entire  confidence 


THK    START.  Ml 

in  liis  honesty ;  and  it  is  clear  that  he  did  his  best,  though, 
weighing  as  he  did  but  eighty-two  pounds,  he  had  neither  the 
strength  nor  stamina  to  hold  and  control  a  powerful,  fiery  horse 
like  Grey  Eagle.  He  rode  superbly  for  a  lad  of  his  years,  while 
Cato's  exhibition  of  skill  and  judgment  would  have  done  credit 
to  Gil.  Patrick.  The  horses  took  their  places  in  accordance  with 
the  precedence  of  their  nomination  for  the  stake.  Grey  Eagle 
having  the  inside  track,  Queen  Mary  second,  Ilawk-Eye  third, 
and  Wagner  the  outside.  Just  at  this  moment  Mr.  Ward,  the 
President  of  tlie  Club,  dislodged  the  band  from  their  seats  over 
the  judges'  stand,  and  Mr.  Clay,  Judge  Porter,  Judge  Kowan, 
our  friend  Col.  Whetstone,  of  the  Devil's  Fork  of  the  Little  Red, 
and  the  writer  of  this  article,  with  two  or  three  other  gentlemen, 
were  invited  to  occupy  them,  by  which  we  all  obtained  a  fine 
view,  not  only  of  the  race,  but — of  the  ladies  in  the  stands 
opposite. 

THE    RACE. 

All  being  in  motion  and  nearly  in  line,  the  President  gave 
the  word  "  Go  !  "  and  tapped  the  drum.  Grey  Eagle  was  the 
last  off,  while  Wagner  went  away  like  a  quarter-horse,  with 
Queen  Mary  well  up  second  ;  they  were  taken  in  hand  at  once, 
which  allowed  Hawk-Eye  to  take  the  place  of  the  Queen  on  the 
back  stretch,  and  at  the  three-quarter-mile  post,  Wagner  allowed 
him  to  take  the  track.  Hawk-Eye  led  home  to  the  stand  at  a 
moderate  pace,  Wagner  second,  and  Queen  Mary  third ;  both 
of  them  were  pulling  to  Grey  Eagle,  at  whose  head  Stephen 
was  tugging  with  might  and  main.  Hawk-Eye  carried  on  the 
running  for  about  half  a  mile  further,  until  Gooding  bid  Cato 
"  go  along."  The  pace  mended  at  once  ;  Wagner  went  up  to 
Hawk-Eye,  and  might  have  cut  him  down  in  half  a  dozen 
strides,  but  the  Queen  was  still  laying  back,  and  Grey  Eagle  had 
not  yet  made  a  stroke.  Wagner  came  first  to  the  stand,  and  at 
the  turn  Cato  having  held  up  his  whip  as  a  signal  to  a  crowd 
of  rubbers  and  boys  on  Garrison's  stable,  that  "  the  old  Sorrel 
Stud"  was  going  just  right,  they  gave  him  a  slight  cheer,  at 
which  Wagner  broke  loose,  and  made  a  spread  eagle  of  the  field 
in  "no  time."  The  other  jocks  were  not  a  little  startled  at  this 
demonstration  of  Wagner's  speed,  and  each  called  upon  his  nag, 


262  TirK    HORSK. 

80  tliat  opposite  the  Oakland  House,  near  the  three-quarter  mile 
post,  the  field  closed.  Ste})hen  here  let  out  the  phenomenon  he 
so  gracefully  bestrode,  and  like  twin  bullets  the  gallant  gray 
and  Wagner  came  out  of  the  melee.  At  the  head  of  the  quar- 
ter stretch,  Stephen  was  told  to  "  pull  him  steady,"  so  that 
before  Wagner  reached  tlie  stand,  Queen  Mary  had  changed 
places  with  Grey  Eagle,  notwithstanding  her  saddle  liad  slipped 
on  her  withers.  Hawk-Eye  was  already  in  difficulty,  and  for 
him  the  pace  was  getting  "  no  better  very  fast."  Grey  Eagle 
set  to  work  in  earnest  on  entering  the  back  stretch,  first  outfoot- 
ing  the  Queen  and  then  challenging  Wagner.  From  the  Oak- 
land House  to  the  head  of  the  quarter-stretch,  the  ground  is 
descending,  and  from  thence  up  the  straight  run  to  the  stand, 
a  distance  of  perhaps  six  hundred  yards,  it  is  ascending.  At 
the  half-mile  post,  Cato  called  upon  Wagner,  and  tlie  critical 
moment  having  arrived,  Stephen  collared  him  with  the  gray, 
on  the  outside.  For  three  hundred  yards  the  pace  was  tremen- 
dous ;  Grey  Eagle  once  got  his  head  and  neck  in  front,  and  a 
tremendous  shout  was  sent  up  ;  but  Wagner  threw  him  oft'  so 
far  in  going  round  the  last  turn,  that,  halfway  up  the  stretch, 
Mr.  Burbridge  ordered  him  to  be  pulled  up,  and  Wagner  won 
cleverly,  Queen  Mary  dropping  just  within  her  distance,  150 
yards.     Hawk-Eye  was  nowhere.     Time  7.48. 

The  disappointment  and  mortification  was  so  great,  that  for 
the  first  twenty  minutes  after  the  heat.  Queen  Mary  was  freely 
backed  against  Grey  Eagle,  while  so  far  as  Wagner  was  con- 
cerned, it  was  considered  "  a  dead  open  and  shut."  Before  the 
forty-five  minutes  had  elapsed,  however,  a  re-action  took  place 
in  favor  of  Grey  Eagle.  Not  a  KentucMan  on  the  ground  laid 
out  a  dollar  on  Wagner  !  From  the  first,  the  very  few  individ- 
uals who  were  disposed  to  back  him  on  account  of  his  blood, 
his  form,  his  performances  and  his  condition,  had  not  staked  a 
dollar;  their  judgment  prompted  them  to  back  the  Southern 
chamj)ion,  but  they  would  not  bet  against  Kentucky  !  Talk  of 
State  pride  in  South  Carolina !  Why,  the  Kentuckians  have 
more  of  it  than  the  citizens  of  all  the  States  in  the  Confederacy 
added  together.  They  not  only  believe  Kentucky  to  be  the 
Eden  of  the  world,  and  the  garden  of  the  Union,  but  their  own 
favorite  county  to  be  the  asparagus-bed  of  the  State !   And  they 


THE    SECOND    HEAT.  2G3 

have  good  reason ;  Kentucky  is  a  glorious  State.  The  talent 
and  chivalry  of  her  sons  are  in  keeping  with  the  intelligence 
and  peerless  beauty  of  her  daughters,  and  well  may  they  be 
proud  of  her  and  of  each  other.     But  to  the  horses. 

All  cooled  off  well,  but  more  especially  Grey  Eagle,  who 
appeared  not  to  mind  the  run  a  jot.  They  got,  as  Clinton 
remarked,  "  a  capital  scrape  out  of  him,"  and  he  was  "  as  fine 
as  silk," — in  good  order  for  a  bruising  heat.  He  extended  him- 
self with  a  degree  of  ease  in  the  second  heat,  and  changed  his 
action  in  a  manner  that  convinced  ns  that  the  sweat  had  relieved 
him.  Wagner,  who  resembles  Boston  in  many  other  respects, 
showed  all  that  placidity  and  calmness  of  look  and  motion  which 
characterizes  "  the  old  White-nose."  Great  odds  were  offered 
on  him  for  the  race,  but  small  amounts  only  were  staked.  Grey 
Eagle's  noble  bearing  and  game-cock  look,  as  he  came  up  to 
contest  in  a  second  heat  for  the  meed  of  honor  and  applause, 
was  the  theme  of  universal  admiration  ;  so  much  so,  indeed,  that 
a  cargo  of  laces,  gloves,  bijouterie,  etc.,  must  have  been  required 
to  pay  the  wagers  made  in  the  Ladies'  Pavilion. 

Second  Heat. — The  tap  of  the  drum  sent  them  away  with  a 
beautiful  start,  Wagner  leading  off  with  a  steady,  business-like 
stride,  while  Grey  Eagle,  as  full  of  game  as  of  beauty,  waited 
upon  him  close  up.  It  was  instantly  evident  that  Mr.  Burbridge 
had  changed  his  tactics ;  the  moment  Stephen  got  Grey  Eagle 
into  straight  work  on  the  back  side,  he  made  play  for  the  track, 
and  after  a  terrific  burst  of  speed  for  one  hundred  and  fifty 
yards,  he  came  in  front ;  keeping  up  his  stroke,  he  soon  after 
made  a  gap  of  four  lengths,  and  though  Wagner  drew  upon  him 
a  little  in  coming  up  the  rising  ground  towards  the  stand,  yet 
he  passed  it  far  enough  in  advance  to  warrant  the  warm  and 
hearty  plaudits  of  his  friends.  As  if  insj)irited  by  the  cheers  of 
the  crowd,  and  the  tokens  of  unalloyed  gratification  exhibited 
by  the  galaxy  of  radiant  beauty  in  the  stands.  Grey  Eagle  kept 
up  his  murderous  rate  throughout  the  entire  second  mile ; 
Wagner  lay  up  close,  and  there  was  no  faltering,  no  fiinching, 
no  giving  back,  on  the  part  of  either.  The  stride  was  over 
twenty-two  feet,  perfectly  steady,  strong,  and  regular,  with  no 
dwelling,  no  floundering,  no  laboring.  Grey  Eagle  made  the 
]-unning  to  beyond  the  half-mile  post  on  the  third  mile,  and  the 


264  THE  rioRs?:. 

pace  seemed  too  good  to  lust,  but  there  were  "  links  "  yet  to  be 
"  let  out."  From  this  point  the  two  cracks  made  a  match  of  it, 
in  which  Queen  Mary  had  as  little  apparent  concern  as  if  out 
of  the  race.  Near  the  Oakland  House,  AVagner  set  to  work  to 
do  or  die.  ^^JRowel  him  iip  !^^  shouted  his  owner  to  Cato  ;  while 
Garrison,  at  the  head  of  the  quarter  stretch,  w^as  waving  hie 
hat  to  him  to  come  on !  The  rally  that  ensued  down  the 
descent  to  the  turn,  was  desperate,  but  Wagner  could  not  gain 
an  inch  ;  as  they  swung  round  into  the  quarter  stretch  the;- 
were  lapped  ;  "  spur  your  proud  coursers  hard  and  ride  ii 
blood ! "  were  the  orders  on  this,  as  they  are  described  to 
have  been  on  Bosworth  "lield."  Botli  horses  got  a  taste 
of  steel  and  catgut  as  they  came  up  the  ascent,  and  on  cast- 
ing our  eye  along  the  cord  extending  across  the  course  from 
the  judges'  to  the  club  stands.  Grey  Eagle  was  the  first  under 
it  by  a  head  and  shoulders ;  at  tlie  turn  Stephen  manoeuvred  so 
as  to  press  Wagner  on  the  outside,  and  soon  after  drew  out  clear 
in  front,  looking  so  much  like  a  winner  that  the  crowd,  unable 
to  repress  an  irresistible  impulse,  sent  up  a  cheer  that  made  the 
welkin  ring  for  miles  around.  The  group  on  Wagner's  stable 
again  bid  him  "  go  on  !  "  but  Cato,  "  calm  as  a  summer's  morn- 
ing," was  quietly  biding  his  time ;  he  seemed  to  feel  that 
Patience  has  won  more  dollars  than  Haste  has  coppers,  and  that 
there  was  but  a  solitary  chance  of  winning  the  race  out  of  the 
fire.  Fully  aware  of  the  indomitable  game  of  the  nonpareil 
under  him,  he  thought  if  he  could  bottle  him  up  for  a  few  hun- 
dred yards  there  was  still  another  run  to  be  got  out  of  him.  He 
accordingly  took  a  bracing  pull  on  his  horse,  and  though  it  was 
"go  along"  every  inch,  Wagner  recovered  his  wind  so  as  to 
come  again  at  the  head  of  the  quarter  stretch.  Stephen,  long 
ere  this,  had  become  so  exhausted  as  to  be  u  able  to  give  Grey 
Eagle  the  support  he  required  ;  he  rode  wide,  swerving  consid- 
erably from  a  straight  line,  and  was  frequently  all  abroad  in  his 
seat.  From  the  Oakland  House  home,  it  was  a  terrible  race  ! 
By  the  most  extraordinary  exertions  Wagner  got  up  neck  and 
neck  with  "  the  gallant  gray,"  as  they  swung  round  the  turn 
into  the  quarter  stretch.  The  feelings  of  the  assembled  thou- 
sands were  wrought  up  to  a  pitch  absolutely  painful — silence 
the   most  profound  reigned  over  that  vast  assembly,  as  these 


SUMMARY.  265 

noble  animals  sped  on  as  if  life  and  death  called  forth  their 
utmost  energies.  Both  jockeys  had  their  whip-hands  at  work, 
and  at  every  stroke,  each  spur,  with  a  desperate  stab,  was  buried 
to  the  rowel  head.  Grey  Eagle,  for  the  first  hundred  yards,  was 
clearly  gaining ;  but  in  another  instant  Wagner  was  even  with 
him.  Both  were  out  and  doing  their  best.  It  was  any  body's 
race  yet !  Now  Wagner — now  Grey  Eagle  has  the  advantage. 
It  will  be  a  dead  heat !  "  See  !  Grey  Eagle's  got  him  !  "— 
«  ]^o — Wagner's  ahead  !  "  A  moment  ensues — the  people 
shout — hearts  throb— ladies  faint — a  thrill  of  emotion,  and  the 
race  is  over !  Wagner  wins  by  a  neck,  in  Y.M,  the  best  race 
ever  run  south  of  the  Potomac  ;  while  Kentucky's  gallant 
champion  demonstrates  his  claim  to  that  proud  title,  by  a  per- 
formance which  throws  into  the  shade  the  most  brilliant  ever 
made  in  his  native  State.     Summary  ; — 

MONDAY,  Sept.  80, 1839.— Sweepstakes  for  all  ages,  3  yr.  olds  carrying  86  lbs.— 4, 100—5, 110— 
6, 118-7  and  upwards,  124  lbs. ;  mares  and  geldings  allowed  3  lbs.  Ten  subscribers  at  $2,000 
each,  h.  ft.,  to  which  the  Proprietor  added  the  receipts  of  the  Stands.    Four-mile  heats. 

Jas.  S.  Garrison's— John  Campbell's— ch.  h.  Wag7ier,  by  Sir  Charles,  out  of  Maria  West,  by 


Marion,  5  yrs. 


Caio.    1    1 


Oliver  &  Dickey's— A.  L.  Shotwell's— gr.  c.  Grey  JSagle,  by  Woodpecker,  out  of  Ophelia,  by 

Wild  Medley,  4  yrs Stephen  Welch.    2    2 

Capt.  Willa  Viley's  ch.  f.  Queen  Mary,  by  Bertrand,  dam  by  Brimmer,  4  yrs.        .        .       .33 
Bradley  &  Steel's  ch.  c.  HoAJok-Eye,  by  Sir  Lovell,  out  of  Pressure's  dam,  by  Jenkins'  Sir 


William,  4  yrs. 


dist. 


Time,  T.48— T.44 


To  say  that  Wagner  was  better  managed  and  better  jockeyed 
in  this  race  than  Grey  Eagle,  is  to  express  the  opinion  of  every 
unprejudiced  individual  who  had  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  it. 
What  might  have  been  the  result  of  the  race^  we  cannot  pre- 
tend to  say,  but  we  assert  with  perfect  confidence  our  belief, 
that  with  Gil.  Patrick  on  his  back.  Grey  Eagle  would  have  won 
the  second  heat.  People  differ  in  opinion,  luckily,  and  were  it 
not  so  we  should  be  in  a  mass.  Had  the  managers  of  Grey 
Eagle  been  content  to  bide  their  time,  another  tale  might  have 
been  told.  "Wait  and  win"  carries  ofi"  more  purses  than 
"  Take  the  track  and  keep  it."  Grey  Eagle  could  outfoot  Wag- 
ner in  a  brush  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards — he  clearly  de- 
monstrated that  fact  half  a  dozen  times  in  the  course  of  the 
week  ;  but  in  a  run  of  five  or  six  hundred  yards,  Wagner  could 
beat  him  about  the  same  distance.  The  two  horses  were  so 
nearly  matched  that  good  generalship  and  good  riding  did  the 


2G6  THE    HORSE. 

business.  Instead  of  allowing  him  to  go  forw-ard  and  ent  out 
the  work,  Grey  Eagle  should  have  been  laid  quietly  behind, 
with  a  steady,  bracing  pull,  until  within  the  distance  stand, 
and  then  pulled  out,  and  made  to  win  if  he  could.  That  was 
his  only  chance  ;  tiring  down  Wagner  is  like  tiring  down  a  lo- 
comotive. 

We  must  here  break  off,  but  not  without  remarking  that 
after  being  weighed,  Cato  was  put  up  again  on  Wagner,  and 
with  the  stakes  in  his  hand — $14,000  ! — he  promenaded  in  front 
of  the  stand,  preceded  by  a  band  of  music,  playing  "  Old  Yiv- 
ginny  never  tire.^^  In  bringing  our  report  of  this  memorable 
race  to  a  conclusion,  we  must  not  neglect  to  record  the  gratify- 
ing fact,  that  notwithstanding  the  immense  throng  of  spectators 
on  the  ground,  and  the  peculiar  excitement  of  the  occasion, 
not  a  solitary  circumstance  occurred  calculated  for  a  moment 
to  interrupt  the  harmony  and  general  good  feeling  which  pre- 
vailed on  all  hands. 

We  have  not  room  to  give  the  details  of  the  running  on  the 
intermediate  days  of  the  meeting.  Suffice  to  say  that  the  tine 
Medoc  tilly  Cub,  won  the  Post  stake  for  3  yrs.  olds,  in  3.45^ — ■ 
3.44; — that  the  Woodpecker  colt  Ralph  won  the  three-mile 
purse  cleverly,  in  5.50  each  heat ; — that  the  Eclipse  mare  Mis- 
souri won  tlie  Oakland  Plate,  two-mile  heats,  in  3.50 — 3.44 — 
3.50  ; — and  that  several  other  exhibitions  of  beauty,  game,  and 
speed,  were  given  during  the  week.  The  first  race  between 
Wagner  and  Grey  Eagle  came  off  on  Monday;  on  Saturday 
they  again  came  out  for  the  Jockey  Club  purse  of  $1,500,  four- 
mile  heats.  Throughout  the  week  the  weather  had  been  de- 
lightful, and  the  attendance  good  enough  to  realize  $15,000  to 
the  spirited  proprietor ;  but  on  this  day  there  was  an  immense 
gathering  from  far  and  near,  and  the  sun  never  shone  out  on  a 
more  lovel}^  morning.  The  attraction,  it  must  be  confessed, 
could  not  have  been  surpassed —  Wagner  and  Gi'ey  Eagle  were 
again  to  come  together!  After  their  race  on  Monday,  both  par- 
ties immediately  interested  were  willing  to  draw  off  their  forces 
and  enjoy  an  honorable  armistice  until  next  spring  ;  but  the  in- 
terference and  misrepresentation  of  sanguine  friends  ultimately 
broke  off  the  truce  existing  between  them,  and  the  high  con- 
tracting parties  set  about  prosecuting  the  war  with  greater  zeal 


THE    SECOND    RACE.  267 

and  euergy  than  ever.  Some  one  wrote  from  Louisville,  direct- 
ly after  the  race,  to  the  effect  that  Wagner  had  declined  to  meet 
Grey  Eagle  in  a  match  for  $10,000,  fom'-mile  heats ;  which  let- 
ter made  its  aj^pearance  in  the  column  of  a  Lexington  journal. 
This  statement  the  friends  of  Grey  Eagle  did  not  deny,  though 
it  was  made  without  their  authority  ;  and  in  consequence  Wag- 
ner was  forced  to  notice  it.  Li  an  article  "  by  authority,"  from 
the  pen  of  a  distinguished  correspondent  of  the  "  Spirit  of  the 
Times,"  published  in  the  Louisville  "  Journal "  on  the  5th  Oc- 
tober, the  writer  remarked  to  the  following  effect ; — 

"  Wagner  and  Grey  Eagle. — The  re'pntation  of  his  horse  is 
dear  to  a  turfman,  and  it  is  his  duty  to  shield  and  defend  it  as 
he  would  his  own  honor.  The  contest  between  Wagner  and 
Grey  Eagle  will  long  be  remembered  by  those  who  witnessed  it. 
Wagner's  lionors  were  nobly  won  ;  he  earned  them  in  a  field 
where  every  inch  of  ground  was  closely  contested  ;  and  any  one 
who  would  attempt  to  pluck  a  laurel  from  his  brow,  by  false- 
hood or  misrepresentation,  deserves  the  scorn  of  every  honor- 
able man. 

"  The  writer  of  this  has  been  induced  to  make  these  remarks, 
from  the  fact  that  a  letter  has  been  published  in  a  Lexington 
paper,  written  from  Louisville,  containing  a  statement  that  Grey 
Eagle  had  challenged  Wagner  for  $10,000,  and  the  latter  had 
declined  the  contest.  This  statement  is  positively y«7.s<',  and  the 
owners  of  Grey  Eagle  will  cheerfully  bear  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  the  assertion.  The  facts  of  the  case  are  these  ;  Wagner 
had  gained  a  victory  over  Grey  Eagle — a  victor}^  in  which  even 
the  defeated  party  gained  the  brightest  laurels,  and  won  for 
himself  imperishable  fame.  Hence  Wagner's  friends  prized  his 
victory  the  more  highly ;  and,  with  that  courtesy  towards  the 
friends  of  Grey  Eagle  which  is  ever  due  from  the  victor  to  the 
vanquished,  they  would  have  been  willing  to  leave  Kentucky, 
perfectly  satisfied  with  his  performance.  But  the  communica- 
tion, above  referred  to,  leaves  but  one  course  to  the  owner  of 
Wagner.  He  is  willing  to  run  him  against  Grey  Eagle,  or  any 
other  horse  in  the  United  States,  four-mile  heats,  for  $10,000,  or 
any  amount  above  that  sum.  This  offer  is  made  with  no  dis- 
position to  detract  from  the  reputation  of  the  game  and  gallant 
Grey  Eagle,  but  solely  on  account  of  justice  to  Wagner,  who 


268  THK    HORSE. 

has  been  placed  iu  a  situation  by  some  of  the  friends  of  Grey 
Eagle  that  loaves  no  alternative." 

The  article  just  quoted  made  its  appearance  in  the  ''  Journal  " 
on  the  morning  of  the  second  race,  which  we  are  about  to  de- 
scribe ;  but  the  friends  of  Grey  Eagle  were  prepared  to  see  it. 
If  we  are  not  very  much  mistaken,  it  was  read  to  its  owner,  as 
it  was  to  several  of  his  friends,  two  days  before  its  publication, 
but  was  delayed  in  the  hope  that  Grey  Eagle's  friends  would 
contradict  the  statement  alluded  to.  In  the  mean  time  both 
horses  were  got  in  order  to  make  another  race.  We  saw  both 
immediately  after  their  first  race,  and  on  the  following  morn- 
ing ;  both  recovered  well,  and  Grey  Eagle  especially  so,  exhib- 
iting very  little  stiffness  or  soreness.  They  improved  from  that 
time  up  to  Saturday  morning,  and  we  never  saw  two  high-met- 
tled racers  in  finer  condition  than  they  were  when  stripped  to 
run  their  second  race. 

In  anticipation  of  a  race,  which,  for  severity  and  interest, 
would  throw  their  first  in  the  shade,  both  parties  were  wide 
awake  to  secure  every  honorable  advantage  within  their  reach. 
Wagner's  rider,  Cato,  had  become  free  about  the  time  of  the 
first  race ;  if  he  rode  the  second  as  well  as  he  did  the  first, 
many  were  the  odd  twenties  and  fifties  he  was  promised.  Ste- 
phen Welch,  Grey  Eagle's  jockey  in  his  first  race,  weighing 
but  82  lbs.,  the  managers  of  the  horse  endeavored  to  find  a 
rider  nearer  up  to  his  proper  weight,  100  lbs.  The  only  one 
on  the  ground  preferable  to  their  own,  was  Mr.  McCargo's 
Archer,  a  very  capital  rider,  with  a  good  seat,  a  steady  hand, 
and  a  cool  head.  Mr.  McCargo  having  no  interest  whatever  in 
the  race,  at  once  placed  Archer's  services  at  the  disj)osal  of 
Grey  Eagle's  friends ;  but  as  his  doing  so  might  possibly  place 
him  in  a  position  of  great  delicacy  and  embarrassment,  at  his 
own  request  they  relieved  him  from  it,  and  concluded  to  put  up 
Stephen  Welch  again,  whose  only  fault  was  that  there  was  not 
enough  of  him  ! 

After  the  i-ac-i-  <>ii  Monday,  the  topic  of  conversation  in 
every  circle  was  the  prospect  of  a  second  one  between  the 
rival  champions.  The  Wagner  party  were  not  anxious  for  a 
race,  but  they  would  not  avoid  one  ;  their  horse  had  not  only 
realized  their  expectations,  but  had  exceeded  their  most  san- 


THE    SECOND    RACE.  26^ 

guine  hopes,  and  they  were  prepared  to  back  him  to  "  the 
size  of  their  pile."  And  well  did  that  noble  son  of  a  worthy 
sire  justify  the  high  opinion  of  his  friends — a  small  circle,  it  is 
true,  but  they  were  stanch  and  true ;  and  when  it  came  to 
"  putting  np  the  mopusses,"  there  were  enough  of  them  to  "  suit 
customers  "  and  no  mistake !  The  friends  of  Grey  Eagle  had 
every  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  first  performance  of  their 
horse,  and  they  were  so.  He  was  the  first  discoverer  of  "  the 
Forties  "  in  a  four-mile  race,  ever  bred  in  Kentucky,  and  he  had 
explored  the  degrees  of  pace  to  the  latitude  of  44,  below  the 
Equator !  All  this  he  had  done  as  an  untried  four-year-old, 
and  if  his  friends  backed  him  with  less  confidence  now,  it  was 
on  account  of  the  severe  race  he  had  made  five  days  previous. 
He  was  in  fine  health,  and  his  look  and  action  indicated  all  the 
spirit  and  courage  of  a  game-cock,  but  it  was  thought  physical- 
ly impossible  for  him  to  make  such  another  race  as  his  first  in 
the  same  week.  The  betting  consequently  settled  down  at  two 
and  three  to  one  on  "Wagner. 

It  will  naturally  be  supposed  that  the  rumor  of  a  second  four- 
mile  race  between  these  two  cracks,  attracted  an  immense  crowd 
of  spectators.  Many  persons  came  down  from  Cincinnati,  while 
the  citizens  of  Lexington,  Frankfort,  Georgetown,  and  the  circle 
of  towns  for  fifty  miles  about  Louisville,  turned  out  in  great 
numbers.  Again  the  city  was  crowded,  and  on  the  morning  of 
the  race  every  carriage  and  horse  in  town  was  in  requisition. 
Many  were  glad  to  get  out  to  the  course  and  call  it  "  riding," 
when  jolting  along  in  a  bone-setter,  compared  with  which  rid- 
ing on  a  white-oak  rail  would  be  fun !  Again  the  ladies  turned 
out  en  tnasse,  to  grace  the  scene  with  their  radiant  beauty,  and 
"  lend  enchantment  to  the  view  "  of  the  race — and  themselves. 

The  jockeys  having  received  their  instructions  from  the 
judges,  "  mounted  in  hot  haste,"  Cato  on  Wagner,  and  Stephen 
Welch  on  Grey  Eagle.  The  third  entry  was  Messrs.  Viley  & 
Ward's  Emily  Johnson — own  sister  to  Singleton,  and  half  sister 
to  Mistletoe — a  four-year-old  bay  filly  by  Bertrand,  out  of 
Black-eyed  Susan.  She  was  not  in  prime  fit,  and  could  not, 
therefore,  live  in  such  a  crowd. 


270  THE  HORSE. 


THE  RACE. 

At  the  word  "  Go,"  AVagner  went  off  with  the  lead  at  about 
three  parts  speed,  Emily  laying  second,  and  all  three  under  a 
strong  pull.  Grey  Eagle's  long,  steady  stride,  after  getting  into 
straight  work  going  down  the  back  stretch,  soon  brought  him 
up  with  the  field,  and  opposite  the  Oakland  House — about  300 
yards  beyond  the  half-mile  post — the  three  were  lapped.  The 
pace  now  improved ;  Grey  Eagle  drew  out  at  the  last  turn,  but 
Wagner  having  the  inside,  and  beginning  to  get  warm,  made 
sharp  running  up  the  stretch  to  the  stand,  and  on  the  next  turn 
came  out  clear  in  front.  Down  the  back  stretch  they  each  kept 
up  a  good  racing  stroke,  but  at  the  Oakland  House  Grey  Eagle 
increased  his  stride  and  locked  Wagner ;  as  neither  was  yet 
called  upon,  a  very  fair  view  was  had  of  their  relative  rate  of 
going  ;  Grey  Eagle  led  down  to  the  head  of  the  stretch  and  up 
to  the  stand  by  half  a  length,  and  immediately  after  came  in 
front.  He  carried  on  the  running  two  lengths  in  advance  to 
near  the  termination  of  the  mile,  when  Wagner  got  a  hint 
to  extend  himself;  without  ]a})ping  him,  Wagner  waited  upon 
him  close  up,  and  opposite  the  Oakland  House  made  his  run ; 
the  rally  that  ejisued  was  a  very  brilliant  affair,  but  Grey  Eagle 
outfooted  him  in  one  hundred  yards,  and  drew  out  clear  amidst 
tremendous  cheers  from  all  parts  of  the  course.  The  instant 
Wagner  declined,  Emily  took  his  place,  lapping  the  gray  as 
they  swung  round  the  turn.  But  Wagner  had  yet  another  run 
left,  and  they  had  no  sooner  got  into  the  quarter-stretch  than 
Cato  set  to  work  with  him.  Grey  Eagle  had  been  able  to  pull 
to  Emily,  and  accordingly  when  Wagner,  by  an  extraordinary 
effort,  reached  him,  half  way  up  the  stretch,  he  was  able  to 
outfoot  him  a  second  time,  and  came  away  home  a  gallant  win- 
ner by  nearly  a  length,  Emily  having  the  second  place,  amidst 
the  waving  of  hats  and  handkerchiefs,  and  tumultuous  cheers, 
that  would  well  nigh  have  drowned  the  roar  of  Niagara  !  The 
first  mile  was  run  in  2.05 — the  second  in  1.55 — the  third  in 
1:56 — the  fourth  in  1.55  ;  making  the  time  of  the  heat  7.51. 

The  heartfelt  gratification  and  rapture  exhibited  at  the  close 
of  the  heat  by  the  assembled  thousands,  knew  no  bounds. 
Kentucky's  most  distinguished  sons,  and  her  loveliest  daughters, 


THE    SECO^-D    HEAT.  271 

felt  alike  interested,  and  Grev  Eagle's  success  was  enjoyed  as  if 
eacli  was  personally  concerned.  The  odds,  from  being  two  and 
three  to  one  in  favor  of  "Wagner,  now  changed,  and  Grey  Eagle 
had  the  call  at  fonr  to  three.  Considerable  sums  were  staked, 
as  Garrison  declared  "  the  old  sorrel  stud "  had  sulked,  but 
would  show  his  hand  the  next  heat.  The  fact  was.  Grey  Eagle 
for  the  first  time  had  been  properly  managed ;  instead  of  run- 
ning the  whole  last  half  mile,  he  had  taken  advantage  of  the 
ground,  and  made  his  first  run  down  the  descent  from  the  Oak- 
land House  to  the  head  of  the  stretch,  and  then  being  braced 
up  for  three  hundred  yards,  which  allowed  him  time  to  recover 
his  wind,  he  was  able  to  come  again  and  make  a  second  rally, 
as  brilliant  as  the  first.  As  we  before  remarked,  we  think  Wag- 
ner could  beat  Grey  Eagle  by  a  desperate  rush  for  six  hundred 
yards  at  the  heel  of  a  very  fast  heat,  but  not  over  a  head  and 
shoulders  at  that ;  while  Grey  Eagle  had  so  much  more  speed, 
that  in  a  brush  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  he  could  let  in 
the  daylight  between  them.  With  so  light  and  feeble  a  rider 
as  Steplien  on  his  back,  it  was  impossible  to  place  Grey  Eagle 
exactly  as  his  managers  would  have  liked,  though  he  is  a  fine- 
tempered  horse,  and  runs  kindly  ;  the  result  of  the  race,  we 
trust,  will  be  a  caution  to  them  hereafter,  how  they  venture  in 
a  race  of  so  much  importance  without  providing  that  most  in- 
dispensable of  requisites  to  success — a  suitable  jockey. 

Both  horses  perspired  freely,  and  in  much  less  time  than 
could  have  been  expected  they  cooled  out  finely  ;  neither  hung 
out  a  signal  of  distress,  but  came  up  for  the  second  heat  with 
distended  nostrils  and  eyes  of  fire,  betokening  the  most  un- 
flinching courage. 

At  the  tap  of  the  drum  the  horses  were  hardly  in  motion, 
and  Cato  drew  his  whip  on  Wagner  the  very  first  jump.  The 
pace  was  little  better  than  a  hand  gallop  for  the  first  half  mile, 
but  as  Wagner  led  past  the  entrance  gate,  Gooding  bid  him 
"  go  along,"  and  he  increased  his  rate.  Stephen  seeing  this,  let 
the  gray  out  a  link,  and  in  going  down  the  descending  ground 
below  the  Oakland  House,  went  up  on  the  inside  so  suddenly, 
that  he  had  locked  Wagner  before  Cato  was  aware  of  his  close 
proximity.  The  run  up  the  quarter  stretch  was  a  pretty  fast 
thing,  though   neither  was   doing  his  best;   the  time   of  the 


272  THE  HOUSE. 

mile  was  2.08.  The  crowd  clieered  them  as  they  ran  lapped 
past  the  stand,  at  which  Grey  Eagle  pricked  up  his  ears 
and  set  to  work  in  earnest,  shaking  oif  Wagner  at  the  next 
turn.  The  race  had  now  commenced  ;  Stephen  braced  his  horse 
as  well  as  he  was  able,  and  kept  him  up  to  his  rate  down  the 
entire  length  of  the  back  stretch.  At  the  Oakland  House  Cato 
again  called  on  Wagner,  and  steel  and  catgut  came  into  play. 
The  gallant  gray  led  clear  to  the  turn,  and  half  way  up  the 
stretch,  Stephen  beginning  to  use  his  whip-hand,  and  to  give 
the  nonpareil  under  him  an  occasional  eye-opener  with  the  spur. 
This  mile  was  run  in  1.52.  They  passed  the  stand  neck  and 
neck,  Emily  being  already  nearly  out  of  her  distance.  From 
the  stand  to  the  first  turn  the  ground  is  descending,  and  here 
almost  invariably  Grey  Eagle  gained  upon  Wagner,  who  kept 
up  one  steady  stride  from  end  to  end,  without  flinching  or  fal- 
tering, and  able  always  to  do  a  little  Tnoi^e  when  persuaded  by 
the  cold  steel  with  which  Cato  plied  him  ever  and  anon  through- 
out the  heat.  We  said  they  passed  the  stand  on  the  second  mile 
neck  and  neck ;  when  they  reached  the  turn  Grey  Eagle  had 
got  in  front,  but  no  sooner  had  they  come  into  straight  work  on 
the  back  side,  than  Wagner  made  a  most  determined  challenge 
and  locked  him  ;  the  contest  was  splendid,  and  was  maintained 
with  unflinching  game  and  spirit;  at  the  end  of  700  yards, 
however,  Grey  Eagle  had  the  best  of  it,  for  in  spite  of  Cato's 
most  desperate  efibrts  Wagner  could  only  reach  Stephen's  knee ; 
Grey  Eagle  seemed  able,  after  a  brush  of  one  hundred  yards,  to 
come  again  with  renewed  vigor,  if  well  braced,  for  a  dozen 
strides.  Down  the  descent  on  the  last  half  mile  Grey  Eagle 
maintained  his  advantage,  but  on  ascending  towards  the  stand 
Wagner's  strength  told,  and  they  came  through  under  whip  and 
spur,  Wagner  having  his  head  and  neck  in  front,  running  this 
mile  in  1.55.  Stephen  was  here  instructed  to  take  a  strong  pull 
on  his  horse,  and  to  "  heejp  him  moving^'  while  "  ram  the  spurs 
into  him;'  were  the  orders  to  Cato.  The  result  was,  that  Wag- 
ner came  in  front,  and  the  pace  down  the  entire  back  stretch 
was  tremendous,  both  being  kept  up  to  their  rate  by  the  most 
terrible  punishment.  Unfoi-tunately,  Stephen  was  directed  to 
"  talce  the  track''  about  opposite  the  Oakland  House,  instead  of 
putting  the  issue  on  a  brush  up  the  last  200  yards  of  the  heat. 


THE   TilHiD    HEAT.  2T3 

Too  soon  the  gallant  Grey  was  called  upon,  but  true  as  steel  the 
noble  animal  responded  to  it.  With  the  most  dauntless  courage 
he  made  his  run  down  the  descending  ground,  and  though  Wag- 
ner, like  the  bravest  of  the  brave,  as  he  is,  made  the  most  despe- 
rate efforts,  Grey  Eagle  came  round  the  last  turn  on  the  outside, 
with  his  head  and  shoulders  in  front,  at  a  flight  of  speed  we 
never  saw  equalled.  Both  jockeys  were  nearly  faint  with  their 
exertions,  and  Stephen,  poor  fellow,  lost  his  presence  of  mind. 
Up  to  the  distance  stand  it  was  impossible  to  say  which  was 
ahead ;  whips  and  spurs  had  been  in  constant  requisition  the 
entire  mile,  but  at  this  moment  Stephen  gave  up  his  pull,  and 
unconsciously  yawed  his  horse  across  the  track,  which  broke 
him  oif  his  stride,  while  Cato,  holding  Wagner  well  together, 
and  mercilessly  dashing  in  his  spurs,  at  length  brought  him 
through  a  gallant  winner  by  a  neck,  having  run  the  last  mile  in 
1.48,  and  the  heat  in  7.43  ! 

This  was  without  exception  the  most  game  and  spirited  race 
we  ever  witnessed.  The  heat  was  Wagner's,  and  while  we  ac- 
cord to  him  all  the  reputation  so  brilliantly  won  after  a  bloody 
struggle  of  near  three  miles,  we  feel  bound  to  express  the  be- 
lief, that  for  an  untried  four-year-old.  Grey  Eagle's  perform- 
ance is  without  a  parallel  in  the  annals  of  the  American  Turf ! 
The  last  three  miles  of  a  second  heat,  in  a  second  four-mile  race 
the  same  week,  were  run  in  5.35,  and  the  eighth  mile  in  1.48 ! 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  spectators  was  now  excited  to  the 
highest  pitch.  There  was  not  on  the  ground,  probably,  an  in- 
dividual who  would  not  have  been  pleased  to  see  the  horses 
withdrawn,  and  the  purse  divided  between  them,  rather  than 
farther  task  the  indomitable  game  and  courage  of  these  noble 
animals  ;  but  no  such  proposition  was  made,  and  after  the  usual 
respite  they  were  brought  to  the  post  a  third  time,  and  it  would 
have  been  diflSlcult  to  decide  which  had  recovered  best.  So 
much  feeling  was  manifested  in  reference  to  the  horses,  that  the 
baser  impulses  to  bet  on  the  result  of  the  concluding  heat  were 
almost  entirely  disregarded  ;  odds,  however,  were  in  a  few  in- 
stances offered  on  Wagner. 

In  detailing  the  contest  for  the  third  heat,  we  are  compelled 
to  record 

"  A  few  of  the  unpleasantest  words 
That  e'er  man  writ  on  paper  !  " 
Vol.  I.— 18 


274  TllK    IKJKSE. 

At  the  word  "  Go,"  they  broke  off  with  a  racing  stride, 
"Wagner  taking  the  lead  by  about  two  lengths ;  the  pace  was 
moderate,  for  Stephen  on  Grey  Eagle  was  expressly  charged  to 
pull  him  steady,  and  wait  for  orders.  Wagner  accordingly  led 
with  an  easy  stroke  through  the  first  mile,  and  being  cheered  as 
he  passed  the  stand,  he  widened  the  gap  soon  after  to  four  or 
five  lengths.  At  the  half-mile  post  Grey  Eagle  made  play, 
and  had  nearly  closed  the  gap  as  they  came  opposite  the  Oak- 
land House,  when  he  suddenly  faltered  as  if  shot,  and  after 
limping  a  step  or  two,  abruptly  stopped  !  "  Grey  Eagle  has  let 
down  !  "  was  the  cry  on  all  hands,  and  when  the  spectators  be- 
came aware  of  the  truth  of  the  painful  announcement,  the  tear- 
ful eyes  of  a  radiant  host  of  Kentucky's  daughters,  and  the 
heartfelt  sorrow  depicted  in  the  countenance  of  her  sons,  indi- 
cated the  sincerity  of  the  sympathy  with  which  they  regarded 
the  untimely  accident  to  their  game  and  gallant  champion  ?  It 
was  supposed,  on  a  hasty  examination,  that  Grey  Eagle  had 
given  way  in  the  back  sinews  of  his  left  fore  leg,  but  it  has 
since  been  ascertained  that  the  injury  was  in  the  coffin  joint. 
Mr.  Burbridge  on  the  instant  tightly  bandaged  the  leg  with  a 
stout  strip  of  dry  canvas,  which  being  kept  wet,  would  have 
prevented  the  horse  from  coming  down  on  his  pastern  joints 
even  had  his  leaders  given  way.  A  fortnight  after  the  race 
the  horse  j^romised  to  recover  perfectly  ;  Mr.  Shotwell  informed 
us  that  the  ankle  and  joint  were  a  little  swollen,  but  that  neither 
the  horse's  pastern  nor  cannon  bones  were  afi'ected,  and  his 
leaders  were  as  sound  as  ever.  We  doubt,  however,  whether 
he  will  ever  stand  another  training;  a  slight  wrench  would 
render  him  as  lame  as  ever.  We  need  not  add,  that,  while  his 
owners  and  managers  have  the  cordial  sympathy  of  their 
friends,  and  the  Sporting  World  generally,  there  is  no  one 
"  with  soul  so  dead  "  as  to  withhold  the  expression  of  their  ad- 
miration of  the  gallant  gray,  and  their  heartiest  wishes  for  his 
Bpeedy  recovery. 

Soon  after  Grey  Eagle  was  stopped,  Cato  pulled  Wagner  out 
of  his  stride,  and  galloped  him  slowly  round.  The  intelligence 
of  the  High  Mettled  Ilacer  was  clearly  indicated  by  Wagner's 
subsequent  action ;  from  the  head  of  the  stretch  home  he  inva- 
riably went  at  a  racing  pace,  and  appeared  as  if  he  did  not 


GREY  EAGLE  BREAKS  DOWN.  276 

know  what  was  required  of  him,  frequently  bursting  off  in 
spite  of  his  rider.  On  the  fourth  mile,  as  he  passed  his  own 
stable,  the  rubbers  and  riders  standing  on  its  roof  gave  him  a 
hearty  cheer,  and  the  gallant  horse  broke  off,  and  in  spite  of 
Cato's  utmost  exertions,  ran  at  the  very  top  of  his  speed  for  near- 
ly 600  yards,  as  if  plied  with  steel  and  whalebone  the  whole 
way !  We  never  saw  a  more  magnificent  exhibition  of  un- 
flinching game ;  even  the  friends  of  Grey  Eagle  forgot  their  dis- 
tress for  a  moment,  in  doing  justice  by  a  cheer  to  the  gallant 
and  victorious  champion  of  Louisiana  !     Eecapitulation  ; — 

Saturday,  Oct.  5.— Jockey  Club  purse,  $1,500,  conditions  as  before,  four-mile  heats. 
Jas.  8.  Garrison's,  John  Campbell's,  ch.  h.  Wagner,  by  Sir  Charles,  out  of  Maria  West, 

by  Marion,  5  years,        .........     Cato.    311 

A.  L.  Shotwell's  gr.  c.  Grey  Eagle,  by  Woodpecker,  out  of  Ophelia,  by  Wild  Medley, 

4  years,        .........    Stephen  Welch.    12* 

Willa  Viley's  b.  f.  Emily  Johnson,  own  sister  to  Singleton,  by  Bertrand,  out  of  Black- 
Eyed  Susan,  by  Tiger,  4  years,  ........    2    dist 

Time,  7.51 — 7.48 — third  heat,  no  time  kept.    *  Grey  Eagle  gave  way  in  second  mOe. 

For  more  convenient  reference,  we  repeat  the  time  of  each 
mile  in  tabular  form  : — 


riEST  HEAT. 

1st  mile 2.05 

2d  mile        1.55 

3d  mile 1.56 

4th  mUe 1.55 

7.51 
AmeHcan  Turf  Register,  vol.  II.,  p.  119. 


SECOIO)  HEAT.  I  THIRD  HEAT. 

1st  mile 2.08  |      No  time  kept,  as  Grey  Eagle 

2d  mile 1.52    gave  way  in  running  the  second 

3d  mile 1.55    mile. 

4th  milo 1.48  I 

7.43 


The  event  of  this  race  is  one  of  the  things  which  lead  me 
to  deprecate  the  extremity  to  which  four-mile  heat  racing  is 
carried  in  America. 

That  such  races  test  to  the  utmost  the  pluck,  the  endurance, 
and  the  powers  of  the  blood-horse,  is  granted.  That  they  must 
kill,  at  last,  is  certain. 

The  question  is  this  ;  Cannot  a  horse's  game,  his  endurance, 
and  his  speed  be  tested,  short  of  destroying  his  physical  ability 
ever  to  prove  them  more  ? 

There  must  be  a  limit  even  to  the  wear  of  a  machine.  I  do 
think  that  such  exhibitions  as  the  twenty-mile  race,  from  the  ef- 
fects of  which  one  mare  died,  and,  probably,  not  one  fully  recov- 
ered— as  Wagner's  and  Grey  Eagle's  two  four-mile  races  within 
five  days,  and  other  similar  performances — are  to  be  honored  in 
the  avoidance,  not  the  imitation. — H.  W.  H. 


PEDIGEEE, 

CHARACTERISTICS,   AND   PERFORMANCES   OF  BOSTON. 

Boston  was  bred  by  the  late  John  Wickham,  Esq.,  of  Rich- 
mond, Ya.,  the  eminent  jurisconsult,  and  was  foaled  in  Henrico 
County,  in  1833.  He  was  got  by  the  celebrated  Timoleon,  out 
of  Robin  Brown's  dam — an  own  sister  to  Tuckahoe,  also  bred 
by  Mr.  W. — by  Ball's  Florizel,  her  dam  by  Imp.  Alderman,  out 
of  a  mare  by  Imjj.  Clockfast — her  grandam  by  Symmes'  Wild- 
air,  etc.  For  a  detailed  memoir  and  a  portrait  of  Boston,  see 
the  "Spirit  of  the  Times,"  of  March  7th,  1840.  Boston  was 
sold  by  Mr.  "Wickham,  in  his  2  yr,  old  form  to  Mr.  N'athaniel 
Rives,  of  Richmond,  Ya.,  for  $800,  and  was  trained  in  1836-7, 
by  Capt.  John  Belcher,  who  had  charge  of  one  "  cavalry 
corps  "  from  Col.  Johnson's  stable,  while  Arthur  Taylor  had 
another.  Cornelius,  a  colored  lad,  was  Boston's  jockey  up  to 
27th  April,  1839.  Ever  since  the  Spring  campaign  of  1838, 
Boston  has  been  trained  by  Arthur  Taylor  and  ridden  by  Gil. 
Patrick,  until  this  Spring,  when  Craig  took  Gil.'s  place,  the 
latter  having  gone  to  Kentucky  to  ride  several  important  races, 
all  of  which  he  won.  In  May,  1839,  after  the  1st  heat  of  his 
race  against  Decatur  and  Yashti,  Boston  was  sold  to  Mr.  James 
Long,  of  Washington  City,  for  $12,000  and  half  of  the  purse, 
and  he  is  still  owned  by  Mr.  L.  and  Col.  Wm.  R.  Johnson,  of 
Petersburg,  Ya. 

Boston  is  a  chestnut,  with  white  stockings  on  both  hind  feet, 
and  a  white  stripe  down  the  face.  In  other  respects  than  color 
and  marks,  Boston   closel}'^  resembles  the  British  phenomenon, 


PERFORMANCES    OF   BOSTON.  27Y 

Harkaway.  They  have  alike  prodigious  depth  of  chest,  and  im- 
mensely powerful  loins,  thighs,  and  hocks.  Boston  is  a  trifle  only 
above  15^  hands  high,  under  the  standard,  but  to  the  eye  seems 
taller,  owing  to  his  immense  substance  ;  he  is  a  short-limbed 
horse,  with  a  barrel  rather  flat,  or  "  slab-sided  "  than  round, 
and  well-ribbed  home,  while  his  back  is  a  prodigy  of  strength  ; 
ten  pounds  extra  weight  would  hardly  "  set  him  back  any," 
Though  he  has  occasionally  sulked,  Boston  runs  on  his  courage, 
and  is  never  ridden  with  spurs.  He  is  no  beauty,  his  neck  and 
head  being  unsightly,  while  his  hips  are  ragged,  rendering  him 
"  a  rum  'un  to  look  at ;  "  that  he  is  "  a  good'  un  to  go,"  however, 
we  imagine  will  be  generally  conceded  after  reading  the  annexed 
recapitulation  of 

HIS    PERFORM ANCES. 
1836. 

April  20.  Broad  Rock,   Va Sweeepstakes..Mile  heats lost         % 

Boston,  3  yrs.  old,  bolted  in  the  first  heat,  when  running  ahead. 
Oct.  12.  Petersburg,  Ta Purse Two-mile  heats won  300 

Beating  N.  Biddle,  Mary  Archie,  Juliana,  John  Floyd,  and  ch.  £  by  Henry. 
Nov.  3.  Hanover,  C.  H.,  Va Purse Three-mile  heats won  400 

Beating  Betsey  Minge,  Upton  Heath,  Nick  Biddle,  Alp,  Bayard,  and  a 
Gohanna  flUy. 

1S37. 

May  4.  Washington  City Purse Three-mile  heats won  600 

Beating  Norwood,  Mary  Selden,  Meteor,  Lydia,  bro.  to  Virginia  Graves. 
Oct.  5.  Washington  City Purse Three-mile  heats won  500 

Beating  Prince  George,  Stockton,  Mary  Selden,  Virginia  Graves,  Caroline 
Snowdcn,  and  Leesburg,  in  5.50 — 5.52. 
Oct.  19.  Baltimore,  Md Purse Three-mile  heats won  500 

Beating  Camsidel,  Cippus,  and  Red  Eat,  in  5.51—^1.03. 
Oct.  26.  Camden,  X.  J Purse Three-mile  heats won  500 

Beating  Betsey,  Andrew  and  Tipton,  In  5.51 — 6.02. 

183S. 

May  3.  Union  Course,  L.  I Purse Three-mile  heats won  500 

Boston,  now  5  yrs.  old,  walked  over. 

May  18.  Beacon  Course,  X.  J. ..Purse ..Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Dosoris,  without  extending  himselfl 

May  25.  Camden,  X.  J Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Decatur,  who  had  just  distanced  Fanny  Wyatt,  in  a  match  for 
$10,000,  in  7.45,  at  Washington. 

June  1.  Union  Course,  L.  I Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Charles  Carter,  who  broke  down,  in  7.40— the  first  three  miles  run 
in  5.-36*!!! 

June  8.  Beacon  Course,  N".  J.. ..Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Duano,  who  won  the  first  heat,  in  7.52— 7.54— 8.30.    B.  sulked. 


278  THE   HORSE. 

Oct.  4.  Petersburg,  Va Purse Four-mile  heats won         |Y00 

Beating  Polly  Green  in  a  canter. 
Oct.  13.  Baltimore,  Md Purse Four-mile  heats won  700 

Beating  Balie  Peyton,  who  had  won  a  heat  from  Duano  in  7.42. 
Oct.  19.  Baltimore,  M(\ Purse Four-mile  heats rec.  500 

Boston  was  paid  $500  out  of  the  pnrse  not  to  start. 
Oct.  27.  Camden,  X.  J Purse Four-mile  heats rec.  500 

Boston  was  paid  $500  out  of  the  purse  not  to  start. 
Nov.  2.  Union  Course,  L.  I Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Decatur  with  ease  in  8.00—7.57}. 
Nov.  9.  Beacon  Course,  N.  J. ...Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Decatur.    This  year  B.  won  nine  Jockey  Club  Purses,  and  received 
$1,000  more  for  not  starting. 

1839. 

April  16.  Petersburg,  Va Match Two-mile  heats lost. 

Beaten  by  Portsmouth,  in  3.50—3.48.    B.  being  off  his  foot. 
April  2Y.  Broad  Rock,  Va Purse Three-mile  heats won  500 

Beating  Lady  Clifden  and  Brocklesby  in  5.46  with  ease— the  best  time  ever 
mado  on  this  course. 
May  9.  Washington  City Purse Four-mile  heats won  800 

Beating  Tom  "Walker,  Black  Knight,  Eeliance,  and  Sam  Brown,  in  7.53— 
8.06. 
May  24.  Camden,  N.  J Purse Four-mile  heats won        1,000 

Boston,  now  6  yrs.,  walked  over,  though  several  "  cracks "  wore  on  the 
ground. 
May  31.  Trenton,  N.  J Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Decatur  and  Vashti  with  ease.    V.  had  just  won  a  2d  heat  in  7.46. 
June  7.  Union  Course,  L.  I Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Decatur  and  Balie  Peyton  cleverly  in  7.47-8.02. 
Sept.  26.  Petersburg,  Va P.    and   Stake.... Four-mile  heats won         7,000 

Beating  The  Queen  and  Omega  in  8.02— 7.52— best  time  made  on  the  course 
to  this  date. 
Oct.  17.  Camden,  N.  J P.    and   Stake.. ..Four-mile  heats won         7,000 

Beating  Omega  in  7.49.    O.  had  won  a  heat  at  Washington  in  7.40  ! 
Oct.  23.  Trenton,  N.  J Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Decatur  and  Master  Henry  in  7.57—7.56. 

1840. 

May  1.  Petersburg,  Va Purse Four-mile  heats won  700 

Beating  Andrewetta,  who  won  the  1st  heat,  in  7.50— 8.04r— the  best  time  ever 
made  on  the  course. 
May  8.  Washington  City Purse Four-mile  heats won         1,000 

Beating  Eeliance  and  Cippus  without  a  struggle. 
Oct.  2.  Petersburg,  Va Purse Four-mile  heats won  700 

Beating  Bandit,  who  was  drawn  after  1st  heat,  in  7.57. 
Oct.  8.  Broad  Rock,  Va Purse Three-mile  heats won  500 

Beating  Texas,  Balie  Peyton,  and  Laneville,  in  5.56—5.49. 
Dec.  7.  Augusta,  Ga Match Four-mile  heats won       10,000 

Beating  Gano  in  a  gallop  in  7.57,  after  which  G.  was  drawn. 
Dec.  17.  Augusta,  Ga Purse Four-mile  heats won  800 

Beating  Santa  Anna  and  Omega  in  7.59—7.40. 


WINNINGS    OF   BOSTON.  279 

1841. 

In  the  Spring  Boston  stood  at  Chesterfield,  Va.,  and  covered  42  mares 

at  $100  each. 
Sept.  30.  Petersburg,  Va Purse Four-mile  heats won  VOO 

Beating  Texas  without  an  effort. 
Oct.  8.  Alexandria,  D.  C Purse Four-mile  heats won  800 

Boston  walked  over  though  several  cracks  were  present. 
Oct.  15.  Washington  City Purse Four-mile  heats won  800 

Beating  Accident,  Ned  Hazard,  and  G-reenhlll  with  ease. 
Oct.  21.  Baltimore,  Md Purse Four-mile  heats won  600 

Beating  Mariner,  who  won  1st  heat  in  8.00^—8.05— 8.10— course  very  heavy. 
Oct.  28.  Camden,  N.  J Purse Four-mile  heats lost 

Distanced  by  John  Blount  and  Fashion  in  7.42— Blount  broke  down  in  2d  heat, 
which  was  won  by  Fashion  in  7.48.    Boston  dead  amiss,  and  unable  to 
run  a  mile  under  2.10. 

Starting  thirty-eight  times,  and  winning  thirty-five  races — twenty-six  of 

them  at  four-mile  heats,  and  seven  at  three-mile  heats — winning $49,500 

Add  for  his  earnings  in  the  breeding  stud.  Spring  of  1841 4,200 


Boston's  winnings  and  earnings  amount  to  the  enormous  sum  of $53,700« 

It  is  due  to  Boston  to  state,  that  in  his  four-year-old  form  he 
was  prevented  from  starting  for  the  large  j)urses  offered  for  four- 
mile  heats,  by  being  in  the  same  stable  with  Atalanta,  Lady  Clif- 
den,  Argyle  and  Mary  Blunt.  And  it  is  no  less  due  to  him  than 
to  his  liberal  and  high-spirited  owners  to  add,  that  from  a  regard 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  Turf,  they  have  frequently  allowed 
him  to  remain  in  his  stable,  when  by  starting  him  they  could 
have  taken  the  purses  without  an  effort.  Boston,  after  his  match 
with  Gano,  at  Augusta,  could  have  won  a  Jockey  Club  purse 
there,  and  at  Savannah  and  Charleston.  In  the  Spring  of  1840, 
he  started  but  twice,  though  he  could  have  easily  won  every  four- 
mile  purse  given  between  Petersburg  and  Long  Island.  His 
owners,  in  the  latter  instance,  were  personally  appealed  to,  and 
consented  to  send  him  home  from  "Washington,  while  one  of  the 
JSTorthern  proprietors  proposed  to  exclude  him  from  running. 
Several  other  occasions  might  be  named  on  which  Boston  has 
been  withdrawn  from  the  contest,  at  the  request  of  the  pro- 
prietors of  courses,  upon  a  representation  that  his  entrance 
would  destroy  the  sport  and  disappoint  the  public. 

Boston  now  at  the  advanced  age  of  eight  years^  after  a  racing 
career  of  unparalleled  severity  is  still  as  sound  as  a  dollar,  with 
legs  as  free  from  blemish  as  a  3  yr.  old.  The  field  of  his  bril- 
liant, never-fading  victories  extends  from  New  York  to  Georgia, 
and  he  has  not  only  beaten,  one  after  another,  every  horse  within 


280  THE    UOKSE. 

his  reach,  but  he  has  challenged  all  others,  oiFering  to  meet 
them  on  their  own  ground.  Napoleon  found  a  Waterloo  and 
so  has  Boston,  but  the  latter  is  beaten,  not  defeated  ;  like  the 
former,  it  will  be  found  that  "  he  is  never  more  to  be  feared 
than  in  his  reverses."  When  dead  amiss  he  was  beaten,  it 
is  true ;  the  race  was  a  splendid  one — one  of  the  best  ever 
run  in  America — but  Boston  had  no  part  in  it ;  he  could  not 
have  beaten  a  cocktail  on  that  occasion,  and  instead  of  being 
backed  as  usual  at  "  1,000  to  300,  nineteen  times  over,"  his 
owners  did  not  lay  out  a  dollar  on  him  !  Since  he  was  taken  up 
this  Fall  his  owners  determined  to  give  him  a  trial,  to  see  whe- 
ther his  speed  or  game  had  been  aifected  by  his  services  in  the 
breeding  stud.  An  eye-witness  of  this  trial,  who  went  over  two 
hundred  miles  to  see  it,  has  assured  us  that  it  was  not  only  the 
best  trial  Boston  ever  made,  but  it  was  the  best  trial  ever  made 
over  a  course  which  has  been  trained  on  for  half  a  century ! 
Since  that  event,  Boston  has  offered  to  run  four-mile  heats 
"  against  any  two  horses  in  the  world^''  for  $45,000,  which  was 
not  accepted,  and  since  his  defeat  at  Camden,  by  Fashion,  he 
has  challenged  her  to  run  him  next  Spring  for  $20,000.  The 
winner  of  this  match  will  richly  merit  and  most  assuredly  re- 
ceive the  proud  title  of  Champion  of  the  American  Tuef  ;  let 
us  hope,  therefore,  that  each  will  come  to  the  post  in  tip-top 
condition,  and  we  may  confidently  anticipate  witnessing  the  best 
race  without  exception  ever  run  in  America. 

Boston's  pedigree  in  extenso^  as  given  in  the  13th  volume 
of  the  "  American  Turf  Eegister  ;  " — 

1833.  Boston,  ch.,  h.,  by  Timoleon,  out  of  Eobin  Brown's 
dam,  own  sister  to  Tuckahoe  and  Eevenge,  by  Florizel ;  her 
dam — ^the  grandam,  too,  of  Luda, — by  English  Alderman  ;  great 
grandam  by  English  Clockfast,  and  her  dam  by  Wild  air.  The 
residue  of  the  maternal  line  lost ;  but  of  the  purity  of  the  blood 
no  doubt. 

1813.  Timoleon,  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  English  Saltram, 
grandam  by  Wildair,  &c. — See  Genealogy,  2. 

1805.  Sir  Archy,  by  English  Diomed,  dam  by  English  Kock- 
ingham,  grandam  Tabitha,  own  sister  to  Miss  Kingsland — out 
of  Pegasus's  dam— by  Trentham.— See  Genealogy,  3. 


boston's  anoestky.  281 

1781.  Eockingham,  as  a  race-horse,  the  best  son  of  High- 
flyer— Herod's  best  son — out  of  Purity,  by  Matchem,  &c. 

1Y80.  Saltram,  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Yirago  by  Snap — ^Kegu- 
lus,  &c. 

1801.  Florizel,  by  English  Diomed,  dam  by  English  Shark, 
grandam  by  Harris's  Eclipse — son  of  English  Fearnought,  out 
of  English  Stella,  by  Shaksj^eare — Cassandra,  &c. ; — Fearnought 
— Jolly  Roger,  &c.  Like  English  Eclipse,  Florizel,  in  his  bril- 
liant career,  was  neither  touched  by  whip  nor  spur,  no  competitor 
being  able  to  come  near  him  ;  yet  Sir  Ai'chy  is  regarded  as  the 
best  son  of  Diomed. 

17Y7.  Diomed,  ch.,  by  Florizel — son  of  Herod — dam  by 
Spectator — Blank — Childers — Miss  Belvoir,  &c. 

1787.  Alderman,  by  Pot8os,  out  of  Lady  Bolingbroke,  by 
Squirrel,  out  of  Herod's  dam,  Cypron,  by  Blaze. 

1774.  Clockfast,  by  Gimcrack,  out  of  Miss  Ingram,  by 
Eegulus. 

1777.  Wildair,  by  English  Fearnought,  dam,  by  English 
Jolly  Koger,  out  of  English  Kitty  Fisher,  by  Cade. 

1755.  Fearnought,  by  Regulus — son  of  the  Godolphin  Ara- 
bian— dam  by  Whitenose — Darley  Arabian — Bay  Arabian — 
Helmsley  Turk,  &c. 

1741.  Jolly  Roger,  by  Roundhead — son  of  Childers, — dam 
by  Partner,  &c. 

Those  conversant  with  English  pedigrees,  will  at  once  see 
how  largely  Boston's  blood  partakes  of  that  of  the  Darley  and 
Godolphin  Arabian,  and  of  the  Byerly  Turk,  through  their 
most  renowned  descendants.  Flying  Childers,  Eclipse,  Snap, 
Herod,  Highflyer,  &c.  We  will  here  take  a  review  of  some  of 
these  patriarchs  of  the  Turf  connected  with  Boston's  pedigree, 
and  of  some  others  as  found  in  Fashion's  pedigree. 

It  is  deemed  unnecessary  more  than  to  mention  Childers, 
Eclipse,  and  Highflyer — the  norvpareils  of  their  respective 
eras. 

1718.  Partner,  by  Jig — son  of  the  Byerly  Turk, — dam  by  the 
Ourwen  Bay  Barb,  &c.,  succeeded  Flying  Childers  as  the  best 
race-horse  at  Newmarket. 

1734.  Cade,  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  out  of  the  famed 


282  THE   HORSE. 

plate  mare  Koxana,  l)y  the  Bald  Galloway,  gained  especial  ce- 
lebrity as  the  sire  to  Match  em. 

1739.  Regulns,  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  out  of  the  famous 
Gray  Robinson,  by  the  Bald  Galloway,  was  the  best  race-horse 
of  his  day — the  sire  of  Fearnought,  of  Eclipse's  dam,  and  others 
of  note. 

1748.  Matchem,  the  best  horse  of  his  era,  was  got  by  Cade, 
dam  by  Partner,  &c. 

1749.  Spectator,  by  Crab,  dam  by  Partner  ;  he  was  the  only 
horse,  except  Mirza,  that  beat  Matchem. 

1750.  Snap,  by  Snij) — son  of  Childers — dam  by  Fox,  &c., 
was  the  best  race-horse  at  Newmarket  succeeding  those  above 
named.  He  twice  beat  Marske,  of  the  same  year,  the  sire  to 
Eclipse  ;  was  distinguished,  too,  for  beauty  and  symmetry,  and 
as  a  stallion  of  the  lirst  celebrity — sire  of  twenty-one  noted 
brood  mares,  including  the  dams  of  Sir  Peter,  Medley,  Saltrara, 
Shark,  &c. 

1758.  Herod,  by  Tartar,  dam  by  Blaze,  &c.  Because  of 
Herod's  renown  on  the  Turf  and  in  the  stud,  no  comment  is  re- 
quired. 

1760.  Gimcrack,  by  Cripple,  out  of  Miss  Elliott,  by  Partner, 
&c.  Of  37  races  he  won  28 — matches  and  plates  to  an  immense 
amount. 

1771.  Shark,  by  Marske,  sire  to  Eclipse,  dam  by  Snap — 
Marlborough — son  of  the  Godolphin  Arabian — IS'atural  Barb 
mare.  This  extraordinary  horse  won  upwards  of  20,000  guineas 
in  stakes,  &c.,  beating  the  best  horses,  DorimaVit,  &c. ;  "  equally 
good  for  speed  and  stoutness,  beating  the  best  of  his  contem- 
poraries at  their  own  play."  He  was  sire  to  the  dams  of  Am. 
Florizel,  of  Am.  Maid  of  the  Oaks,  Lady  Lightfoot,  &c. 

1773.  PotSos,  ch.,  by  Eclipse,  Sport's-mistress,  &c.  He 
was  the  rival  to  Dungannon,  as  the  best  race-horse  of  Eclipse's 
get,  and  to  King  Fergus  as  the  best  stallion.  Lineally,  Waxy, 
Whalebone,  Camel,  Touchstone,  &c.,  are  descended  from 
Pot8os. 

1776.  Medley,  gr.  by  Gimcrack,  out  of  sister  to  Sir  Peter's 
dam  by  Snap.  He  was  an  excellent  and  stout  runner,  frequent- 
ly beating  the  celebrities  of  his  day.  But  he  was  most  renowned 
in  the  stud  of  Virginia. 


boston's  ancestry.  283 

1Y7T.  Diomed,  pedigree  given  above,  being  so  distinguished 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  little  more  need  be  said  of  him. 
He  won  the  Derby,  the  Claret,  the  Fortescue  Stakes,  &c.  In 
England  his  blood  has  been  widely  diffused  through  Young 
Giantess,  &c.  As  sire  to  Sir  Archy,  Florizel,  Potomac,  Duroc, 
(fee,  Diomed  has  been  a  Turf  patriarch  in  America  for  more 
than  half  a  century.  Yery  few  race-horses  are  now  on  our 
Turf  that  have  not  some  of  Diomed's  blood. — See  Genealogy,  2. 

1Y80.  Saltram,  a  favorite  race-horse  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
since  George  lY.,  won  the  Derby,  beating  in  his  career  all  com- 
petitors, Dungannon,  Phenomenon,  &c.,  and  was  beat  but  once, 
when  Dungannon  won. 

1781,  This  year  produced  Rockingham  and  Miss  Kingsland 
— see  Sir  Archy's  pedigree  above — the  best  race-horses  of  their 
year,    Rockingham  won  thirty-two  prizes. 

1784.  Citizen,  by  Pacolet,  out  of  Princess,  by  Turk.  Citizen 
was  a  good  and  stout  runner. 


PEDIGEEE, 

CHAKACTERISTICS,  AND  PERFORMANCES  OF  FASHION. 

Fashion  was  bred  by  William  Gibbons,  Esq.,  of  Madison, 
Morris  County,  IST.  J.,  where  she  was  foaled  on  the  26tli  April, 
1837.  It  would  be  difficult  to  sit  down  over  the  Stud  Book  and 
compile  a  richer  pedigree  than  hers,  and  the  same  remark  will 
apply  to  Boston.  Each  is  descended  from  the  most  eminently 
distinguished  racing  families  on  the  side  o  both  sire  and  dam, 
that  have  figured  on  the  Turf  for  a  hundred  years.  Fashion 
was  got  by  Mr.  Livingston's  Imp.  Trustee,  out  of  the  celebrated 
Bonnets  o'  Blue  by  Sir  Charles,  and  she  out  of  Eeality — "  the 
very  best  race-horse,"  says  Col.  Johnson,  "  I  ever  saw."  Eeality 
was  got  by  Sir  Archy,  and  her  pedigree  extends  back  through 
the  imported  horses  Medley,  Centinel,  Janus,  Monkey,  Silver- 
Eye  and  Spanker,  to  an  imported  Spanish  mare.  Trustee,  the 
sire  of  Fashion,  was  a  distinguished  race-horse  in  England,  and 
sold  at  3  yrs.  old  for  2,000  guineas,  to  the  Duke  of  Cleveland, 
after  running  3d  in  the  race  for  the  Derby  of  101  subscribers. 
He  was  subsequently  imported  by  Messrs.  Ogden,  Corbin  and 
Stockton.  Trustee  was  foaled  in  1829,  and  was  got  by  Catton 
out  of  Emma,  by  Whisker,  and  combines  the  blood  of  Hermes, 
Pipator,  and  Sir  Peter,  on  his  dam's  side,  with  that  of  Penelope, 
by  Trumpator,  and  Prunella,  by  Highflyer,  on  the  side  of  his 
sire.  Trustee  is  not  a  chance  horse  ;  in  addition  to  other  winners 
of  his  family,  in  1835,  his  own  brother,  Mundig,  won  the  Derby 
of  128  subscribers. — See  Genealogy,  7. 

Fashion  is  a  rich  satin-coated  chestnut,  with  a  star,  and  a 


PEDIGREE  OF  FASHION.  287 

The  latter  being  an  aged  liorse — 9  yrs.  old — will  have  to  carry 
126  lbs.,  while  the  mare's  appropriate  weight,  being  then  5 
yrs.  old,  will  be  111  lbs.  ^o  match,  the  South  against  the 
l^orth,  has  been  made  up  at  all  comparable  to  this  in  interest, 
since  that  between  Eclipse  and  Hemy,  which  came  off  over  the 
Union  course  on  the  2Tth  of  May,  1828.  Each  champion  has, 
and  is  worthy  of,  troops  of  confident  friends,  and  each  is  in 
good  hands.  Let  them  come  together  in  good  condition — 
give  them  a  fair  field  and  no  favor,  and — who  can  name  the 
winner  ? 

Fashion's  pedigree  i7i  extenso  is  as  follows  ; — 

1837.  Fashion,  ch.  m.,  by  English  Trustee,  out  of  Mariner's 
dam,  Bonnets  o'  Blue — own  sister  to  Slender — by  Sir  Charles, 
grandam  Reality — own  sister  to  Yanity  and  dam  to  Medley — 
by  Sir  Archy,  great  grandam  by  English  Medley,  her  dam  by 
English  Centinel — English  Janus — English  Monliey- -English 
Silver-Ej^e,  &c. 

1829.  Trustee,  ch.,  a  celebrated  race-horse  of  Lord  Darling- 
ton's— since  Duke  of  Cleveland — was  got  by  Catton  out  of  Emma, 
b}'  Whisker,  &c.,  a  famous  pedigree,  own  brother  to  Mundig, 
a  Derby  winner,  and  out  of  the  dam — Emma  dam  of  Ootherstone, 
the  winner  of  the  Derby,  who  ought  also  to  have  won  the  St. 
Leger.  There  is  nothing  superior  to  the  pedigree  of  Trustee's 
maternal  ancestry  in  the  English  Stud  Book.  Catton,  the  sire 
of  this  brace  of  distinguished  brothers,  was  a  capital  performer 
at  all  distances,  winner  of  twenty-one  races  at  N^ewmarket,  Don- 
caster,  and  York.  Honest  Trustee,  as  he  was  termed,  beat  Mar- 
grave, the  St.  Leger  winner,  in  the  Derby  race,  and  again  as  a 
four-year-old,  though  beat  by  him  for  the  St.  Leger.  He  had 
mostly  la  place  d'honneur  at  Epsom,  York,  Don  caster,  and  New- 
market. Trustee  was  sire  to  Revenue,  Reube,  the  trotter  Trus- 
tee, besides  Fashion,  and  others  of  distinction. 

Bonnets  o'  Blue  and  Slender  were  first-rate  at  all  distances, 
and  their  half-brother  Medley,  by  Sir  Hal,  ran  with  distinction. 

1816.  Sir  Charles,  ch.,  the  best  race-horse  of  his  year,  was 
got  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by  English  Citizen,  grandam  by  Com- 
mutation, son  of  Wildair,  &c.  Sir  Charles's  most  distinguished 
get  were  Wagner,  Andrew,  and  Trifle. 


288  THE   HORSE. 

1776.  Medley,  gr.,  by  Gimcrack,  out  of  own  sister  to  the 
renowned  Sir  Peter's  dam,  by  Snap — Eegulus,  &c. 

1758.  Centinel,  by  Blank — son  of  the  Godolphin  Arabian, 
out  of  a  Bartlett's  Child ers  mare, — dam  by  Cade — Partner,  &c. 

Janus,  son  of  the  Godolphin  Arabian's  son,  Janus,  dam  by 
Fox — Bald  Galloway,  &c.     Imported  into  Yirginia  1752. 

1725.  Monkey,  imported  1747,  by  the  Lonsdale  Bay  Ara- 
bian— Curwen's  Bay  Barb — Byerly  Turk,  &c. 

Silver-Eye,  by  the  Cullen  Arabian — Curwen's  Bay  Barb, 
&c.,  to  old  Yintner  mare. 

The  pedigrees  of  Boston  and  Fashion  will  serve  as  examples 
of  the  best  modern  blood  in  "  the  States."  Boston  and  Fashion's 
dams  were  bred  in  Yirginia,  when  decidedly  our  "  race-horse 
region."  Their  ancestors,  Timoleon  and  Eeality,  nobly  con- 
tended against  each  other  as  the  best  two  of  their  year,  and 
among  the  best,  as  well  as  the  earliest,  of  Sir  Archy's  distin- 
guished get.  For  many  years  we  have  rarely  had  a  first-rate 
race-horse  that  was  not  descended  from  Sir  Archy. 


RACE 

OF    BOSTON    AND   FASHION,   MAT   10,  1842. 
THE   BEST   RACE   THEN    EUN    IN    AMERICA. 

The  great  sectional  match  for  $20,000  a  side,  four-mile 
heats,  between  the  N'ortli  and  the  South,  came  off  on  Tuesday 
last,  the  10th  instant.  Since  the  memorable  contest  between 
Eclipse  and  Henry,  on  the  27th  of  May  1823,  no  race  has  ex- 
cited so  much  interest  and  enthusiasm.  It  attracted  hundreds 
of  individuals  from  the  remotest  sections  of  the  Union,  and  for 
months  has  been  the  theme  of  remark  and  s]3eculation,  not  only 
in  the  sporting  circles  of  this  country,  but  in  England,  where 
the  success  of  the  Northern  Champion  was  predicted.  It  was 
a  most  thrilling  and  exciting  race — one  which  throws  in  the 
Bhade  the  most  celebrated  of  those  wonderful  achievements 
which  have  conferred  so  much  distinction  upon  the  high-met- 
tled racers  of  America ! 

At  an  early  hour  on  Tuesday  morning  our  streets  were  filled 
with  carriages  of  all  descriptions,  wending  their  way  to  the  fer- 
ries, while  thousands  upon  thousands  crossed  over  to  the  cars  of 
the  Long  Island  Railroad  Company.  But  after  eleven  o'clock 
the  Company  found  it  impossible  to  convey  to  the  course  the 
immense  crowd  which  filled  and  surrounded  the  cars,  thouofh 
they  continued  to  sell  tickets  after  they  were  fully  sensible  of 
the  fact.  Indeed  from  the  first  the  arrangements  of  the  Com- 
pany were  an  imposition.  They  charged  the  most  extravagant 
price  for  the  transportation  of  passengers,  and  their  prepara- 
VoL.  L— 19 


290  THE    HOESE. 

tions  were  in  no  way  equal  to  the  occasion ;  above  all,  they  con- 
tinued to  sell  tickets  after  they  knew  that  several  thousand  more 
persons  had  purchased  them  than  they  could  transport.  A 
train,  bearing  over  two  thousand  passengers,  did  not  reach  the 
course  until  after  the  first  heat,  and  hundreds  who  had  pur- 
chased tickets,  despairing  of  reaching  the  course  in  the  cars, 
started  on  foot,  and  reached  it  before  them.  At  half-past 
eleven  o'clock  there  were  not  less  than  five  thousand  persons 
waiting  a  conveyance  by  the  cars  at  the  Brooklyn  terminus,  all 
of  whom  had  purchased  tickets.  Under  these  circumstances, 
it  will  not  be  very  surprising  to  any  one  to  hear  that  upon  the 
return  of  the  cars  after  the  race,  the  indignant  passengers  rolled 
several  of  them  off  the  track  over  the  hill,  and  smashed  others, 
while  "  a  perfect  mash "  was  made  of  the  ticket  office.  The 
race  was  a  golden  harvest  to  the  hack,  cab,  and  omnibus 
proprietors.  The  anxiety  to  reach  the  course  was  so  great  that 
ten  dollars  were  offered  for  a  standing-up  place  in  a  charcoal 
cart !  Our  contemporary  of  the  "  Couriei-  and  Enquirer  "  thus 
pleasantly  describes  his  own  "  peculiar  position  ;" — 

"  Finding  that  our  tiohet  was  valueless,  we  engaged  a  dech 
passage  on  an  omnibus  ;  and  never  have  we  witnessed  so  curi- 
ous an  exhibition  as  the  road  to  the  course  presented.  We  have 
neither  space  nor  time  to  describe  it ;  but  the  reader  may  form 
some  idea  of  the  anxiety  to  get  ahead,  when  we  state  that  be- 
side the  thousands  that  were  footing  it  with  railroad  tickets  in 
their  pockets,  and  the  immense  number  in  all  sorts  of  vehicles, 
we  overtook  a  charcoal  cart,  from  which  the  cry  of  ch-a-r-co-al 
was  heard  to  proceed  in  full  chorus  ;  and  on  getting  alongside 
some  twenty  heads  were  obtruded,  presenting  faces  which  we 
readily  imagined  had  once  been  white,  but  which  were  now  of 
the  most  perfectly  sable  hue.  Tliey  were  a  set  of  very  clever 
fellows,  who  deemed  themselves  fortunate  to  have  procured  even 
this  mode  of  conveyance  to  the  race-course." 

Having  engaged  a  carriage  the  day  previous,  we  were  ena- 
bled to  reach  the  course  at  an  early  hour.  The  roads  from  town 
were  thronged  almost  the  entire  distance  with  a  procession  of 
carriages  and  frequently  with  several  abreast,  all  crammed.  It 
would  require  the  pen  of  the  "  Troubadour  of  the  Corporation 
Dirt  Carts  "  to  give  a  description  of  them.     Flatbush  wagons 


THE    RACE    COURSE.  291 

and  sixpenny  bone-setters  were  jammed  in  between  fonr-in- 
liand  landaus,  fast  crabs  in  match  carts,  elegant  stanhopes,  and 
the  superb  turn-outs  of  our  wealthy  cits.  The  Communipaw 
clam-boxes,  stylish  cabs,  and  every  variety  of  barouche  were  in- 
extricably mixed  up  and  jostled  by  great  lumbering  omnibuses 
and  thousands  of  fancy  go-carts,  wagons,  and  hackney  coaches. 
Upon  reaching  the  course  such  a  tableau  was  presented  as 
we  never  saw  before.  The  field  inside  of  the  course  was 
thronged  with  carriages  and  equestrians,  while  the  fences, 
booths,  and  trees,  were  densely  covered,  §o  much  so  that  several 
accidents  occurred  from  their  breaking  down.  It  is  stated  that 
there  were  no  less  than  eight  thousand  persons  in  the  stands, 
and  yet  there  were  nearly  as  many  more  who  could  obtain  but 
a  partial  view  of  the  race,  while  many  could  not  see  it  at  all. 
The  number  of  spectators  in  attendance  is  variously  estimated 
at  from  fifty  to  seventy  thousand.  Among  them  the  U.  States 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  the  British  Army  and 
Navy,  as  well  as  our  own,  the  Bench  and  the  Bar,  and  the 
Beauty  and  Fashion  of  New  York  were  all  represented.  The 
Ladies'  stand  was  appropriately  graced  by  the  presence  of  a 
large  number  of  the  most  brilliant  of  our  city  belles,  who,  with 
hardly  an  exception,  gave  the  suffrage  of  "  their  most  sweet 
voices  "  to  the  beautiful  daughter  of  Bonnets  o'  Blue.  The  en- 
closed "  privileged  space  "  in  front  of  the  stands,  reserved  for 
the  members  of  the  Jockey  Club,  and  strangers — who  were 
charged  $10  for  admission,  without  distinction — was  thronged 
with  turfmen,  breeders,  and  amateurs.  At  one  o'clock,  how- 
evei*,  owing  to  the  want  of  an  efiicient  police,  and  their  inability 
to  see  the  race,  more  than  a  thousand  persons  climbed  over  the 
pickets,  from  the  field,  into  the  enclosed  space,  while  a  mob  on 
the  outside  tore  down  a  length  of  fence,  and  stove  through  a 
door  in  the  stand,  and  swarmed  into  the  cleared  space.  For  a 
time  it  seemed  impossible  for  the  match  to  take  place  at  all. 
A  crowd  of  loafers  made  a  rush  up  the  stairs  leading  to  the 
Club  stand,  but  they  were  summarily  ejected.  At  length 
Yankee  Sullivan,  Jeroloman,  Rynas,  and  several  other  distin- 
guished members  of  the  fancy,  undertook  to  clear  the  course, 
which  they  did  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  by  organizing  a 
party  of  their  friends,  who  formed  in  line,  with  clasped  hands. 


292  THE   HORSE. 

quite  across  the  space,  and  marched  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
thereby  driving  outside  of  the  gate  every  person  witliout  a  badge. 
Of  course  there  were  among  this  mob  several  ugly  customers, 
but  Yankee  Sullivan  had  only  to  "  let  fly  with  his  right,"  or 
Jeroloman  give  any  one  of  them  "  a  teaser  on  his  smeller,"  to  fix 
his  business !  On  the  whole,  the  mob  conducted  themselves 
very  well  under  the  circumstances  ;  the  great  majority  were  in 
perfectly  good  humor,  and  had  the  proprietors  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  paint  the  tops  of  the  pickets  with  a  thick  coat  of  tar^ 
and  engage  a  strong  body  of  j)olice,  no  such  disgraceful  scene 
would  have  occurred. 

The  race  commenced  about  2  o'clock.  For  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  in  front  of  the  stands,  the  spectators  ranged  on 
the  side  of  the  course  and  of  the  field  presented  one  dense  mass 
of  thousands,  through  which  the  horses  ran  the  gauntlet.  The 
course  itself,  owing  to  the  rain  of  Sunday  night,  was  not  deemed 
quite  so  well  adapted  for  speed  as  upon  some  other  occasions  ; 
still  it  was  in  fine  order.  The  prospect  of  the  weather,  in  the 
morning,  was  unfavorable,  but  though  at  10  o'clock  there  was  a 
slight  sprinkling  of  rain,  it  soon  cleared  off.  The  day  was  warm 
and  pleasant,  but  with  scarce  a  glimpse  of  the  sun. 

The  betting  was  a  shade  in  Boston's  favor.  Before  the  race 
came  off,  however,  his  friends  were  obliged,  in  order  to  get  on 
their  money,  to  lay  100  to  60,  and  in  some  cases  2  to  1.  "We 
never  saw  so  little  money  bet  on  a  race  here  of  any  impor- 
tance; oi  heavy  betting  we  did  not  hear  of  a  solitary  transac- 
tion, though  the  backers  of  each  were  sanguine. 

Having  previously  given  in  the  preceding  pages  complete 
memoirs  of  the  rival  champions,  with  their  pedigrees,  character- 
istics, and  performances,  in  detail,  we  have  only  to  speak  of  their 
fine  condition.  Both  stripped  well.  Boston  was  drawn  unusually 
to  our  eye,  but  his  coat  looked  and  felt  like  satin.  Fashion's 
curb,  though  quite  prominent,  did  not  seem  to  affect  her  a  jot ; 
otherwise  she  was  in  condition  to  run  for  a  man's  life.  We 
need  hardly  say  that  she  was  admirably  trained  by  Mr.  Laird, 
nor  that  slie  was  splendidly  jockeyed  by  iiis  son  Joseph — a  chip 
of  the  old  block — Mr.  Laird  liaving  formerly  been  a  conspicu- 
ous jockey.  Boston  of  course  was  managed  by  Col.  Johnson, 
and   ridden  by  Gil.  Patrick  in  his  usual  superb  style  ;  Arthui 


THE   RACE.  293 

Taylor  brought  him  to  the  post  in  unusually  fine  order.  Gil. 
Patrick  rode  the  first  heat  without  a  spur.  The  jockeys  having 
received  their  orders,  mounted,  and  had  their  girths  taken  up 
another  hole,  brought  their  horses  up  in  fine  style  without  any 
assistance  whatever  from  their  trainers,  and  were  off  with  a  run- 
ning start  for  the  race. 

First  Heat. — Boston  on  the  inside  went  away  with  the  lead 
at  a  rattling  pace,  the  mare  laying  up  within  two  lengths  of 
him  down  the  straight  run  on  the  back  stretch  ;  the  half  mile  was 
run  in  55  seconds.  The  same  position  was  maintained  to  the 
end  of  the  mile — run  in  Im.  53s. — but  soon  after  Fashion  made 
play  and  the  pace  improved.  Both  made  strong  running  down 
the  back  stretch,  over  the  hill — opposite  the  half-mile  post — 
and  down  the  slight  descent  which  succeeds,  and  though  this 
seemed  favorable  ground  for  Boston,  the  mare  gained  on  him, 
at  tliis  place,  in  this  mile,  and  placed  herself  well  up.  Boston 
threw  her  off  on  the  turn,  and  led  through  clear,  running  this 
mile  in  Im.  50  s.  Tlie  pace  seemed  too  good  to  last,  and  Bos- 
ton's friends  as  he  led  cleverly  down  the  back  stretch,  were 
"  snatching  and  eager  "  to  take  any  thing  offered.  Again,  Bos- 
ton led  through  this  mile— the  third — ^being  run  in  Im.  54:S., 
Fashion  keeping  him  up  to  the  top  of  his  rate.  The  contest 
was  beautiful  and  exciting  beyond  description  ;  there  was  no 
clambering,  no  faltering,  no  dwelling  on  the  part  of  either ; 
each  ran  with  a  long  rating  stroke,  and  at  a  pace  that  kills. 
Soon  after  commencing  the  fourth  mile,  Joe  Laird  shook  his 
whip  over  her  head,  and  gave  Fashion  an  eye  opener  or  two 
with  the  spur,  and  not  100  yards  from  the  ground  where  Boston 
took  the  track  from  Charles  Carter,  she  collared  and  jyassed  Mm 
in  Tiolf  a  dozen  strokes^  at  a  flight  of  speed  we  never  saw 
equalled,  except  in  the  desperate  brush  at  the  stand  between 
Grey  Medoc  and  Altorf,  in  their  dead  heat.  When  Fashion  re- 
sponded to  the  call  upon  her  and  took  the  track  in  such  splendid 
style,  the  cheers  sent  up  from  the  rude  "  throats  "  of  thousands 
might  have  been  heard  for  miles.  Fashion  made  her  challenge 
after  getting  through  the  drawgate,  and  took  the  lead  opposite 
the  quarter-mile  post.  Boston,  however,  like  a  trump,  as  he  is, 
did  not  give  back  an  inch,  and  though  it  was  manifest  the 
"Northern  Phenomenon  had  the  foot  of  him,  he  gave  her  no  re- 


294  THE    HORSE. 

spite.  He  lapped  her  down  the  back  stretch  for  300  yards, 
when  Gil.  Patrick  very  sensibly  took  a  strong  bracing  pull  on 
him  and  bottled  him  up  for  a  desperate  brusli  up  the  hill,  where 
Eclipse  passed  Henry.  Here  Gil.  again  let  him  out,  but  unfor- 
tunately he  pulled  him  inside  so  near  the  fence  that  Boston 
struck  ]iis  hij)  against  a  post,  and  hitting  a  sharp  knot  or  a  nail, 
cut  through  the  skin  on  his  quarter  for  seven  or  eight  inches. 
He  struck  hard  enough  to  jar  himself  very  much,  and  we  ob- 
served liim  to  falter ;  but  he  soon  recovered,  and  though  at  this 
moment  Fashion  led  him  nearly  three  lengths,  he  gradually 
closed  the  gap  round  the  turn  to  within  a  few  feet.  At  this 
moment  the  excited  multitude  broke  through  all  restraint  in 
their  anxiety  to  witness  the  termination  of  the  heat,  and  the 
course  was  nearly  blocked  up.  On  coming  out  through  a  nar- 
row gauntlet  of  thousands  of  spectators  excited  to  the  highest 
pitch,  both  horses  very  naturally  faltered  at  the  tremendous 
shouts  which  made  the  welkin  ring.  Up  the  quarter  stretch 
Gil.  made  another  desperate  effort  to  win  the  race  out  of  the 
fire.  He  applied  his  thong  freely,  while  Joe  Laird  drew  his 
whip  on  the  mare  more  than  once,  and  tapped  her  claret  at  the 
same  time.  Inside  of  the  gate  it  was  a  "hollow  thing,"  though 
Boston  nearly  closed  the  gap  at  the  distance  stand.  Gil.  fairly 
caught  Joe  by  surprise,  but  the  latter,  shaking  his  Avhij)  over 
her  head,  gave  Fashion  the  spur,  and  she  instantly  recovered 
her  stride,  coming  through  about  a  length  ahead,  with  aj^pa- 
rently  something  in  hand  to  spare,  closing  the  heat  in  7m. 
32|s. — the  fastest  by  all  odds  ever  run  in  America. 

The  time  was  kept  on  tlie  Jockey  Club  stand  by  Messrs. 
Robert  L,  and  James  Stevens,  and  in  the  Judges'  stand  by  Sen- 
ator Barrow,  of  Louisiana,  Hon.  Mr.  Botts,  of  Virginia,  J. 
Hamilton  Wilkes,  Esq.,  and  the  official  timers.  We  took  the 
time  of  each  mile  from  the  Messrs.  S.,  between  whom  we  stood. 
Mr.  IS;  eill.  Major  Einggold,  and  other  gentlemen  of  acknowledged 
accuracy  as  timers  stood  in  the  same  circle,  and  there  was  bat 
a  fraction  of  difference  in  the  time  each  declared  "  by  watches 
too,  not  made  in  Kentucky."  Messrs.  Stevens  made  the  time 
7m.  33s.,  but  as  they  kept  the  time  of  the  half,  and  in  some 
cases,  of  the  quarter,  miles,  their  difference  of  but  half  a  second 


THE   FIRST    HEAT.  295 

from  tlie  timers  in  the  Judges'  stand,  demonstrates  the  remark- 
able accuracy  of  the  parties. 

The  result  of  the  heat  was  the  more  astonishing  to  a  few  of 
Boston's  friends,  as  no  one  ever  supposed  Fashion  could  make 
this  time,  though  she  might  heat  him.  "We  were  prepared  to 
expect  the  best  time  on  record,  not  only  from  the  fact  that  we 
had  been  informed  of  the  result  of  'Fn^lvionh  private  trial  on  the 
25th  ult.,  but  from  a  circumstance  which  we  shall  be  excused, 
we  trust,  for  alluding  to  here.  After  retiring  to  our  room  at  the 
Astor  House  on  Monday  night,  at  a  late  hour,  we  had  the  plea- 
sure of  a  "  domiciliary  visit  "  from  Mr.  Long,  the  owner  of  Bos- 
ton, and  several  mutual  friends.  The  "  party  "  were  attired  in 
costumes  that  would  be  esteemed  somewhat  unique  out  of  the 
circle  of  the  Marquis  of  Waterford's  friends,  who  ride  steeple 
chases  in  their  shirts  and  drawers.  Nevertheless  there  was  no 
lack  of  fun  nor  spirit ;  in  the  course  of  an  interesting  "  horse 
talk,"  Mr,  Long  gave  us  several  "  items,"  one  of  which  was  that 
Boston  would  run  the  first  heat,  "  sure,"  in  Ym.  348.  Said  Mr. 
Long,  "  he  will  run  the  first  mile  in  about  Im.  53s.,  the  second 
in  Im.  52s.,  the  third  in  Im.  54s.,  and  the  fourth  in  Im.  55s." 
After  he  retired  we  made  a  memorandum  of  the  time,  as  a  curi- 
osity after  the  race.  And  we  refer  to  it  now,  to  show  that, 
though  beaten  by  the  ISTorthern  Phenomenon,  the  gallant  Bos- 
ton amply  sustained  all  the  expectations  formed  of  him  from  his 
trials  and  previous  performances.  He  not  only  made  vastly 
better  time  than  he  ever  did  before,  but  better  time  than  ever 
had  been  made — time  that  quite  eclipses  the  most  wonderful 
achievements  on  the  American  Turf.  The  vaimted  perfor- 
mances of  the  Southern  "cracks"  at  New  Orleans,  are  almost 
thrown  in  the  shade,  wonderful  as  they  are.  Had  any  one  of- 
fered to  beat  the  time  of  Eclipse  and  Henry  on  the  Union 
course,  3  to  1  would  have  been  laid  against  it;  or  had  the 
friends  of  Boston  been  assured  that  he  could  run,  as  Mr.  Long 
told  us  he  could,  in  7m.  34s.,  his  friends  would  have  staked  a 
million  of  dollars  upon  his  winning  the  match.  For  the  first 
two  miles  Boston  in  the  opinion  of  many  shrewd  judges  had 
the  foot  of  the  mare,  and  it  is  thought  that  had  he  trailed  her 
as  he  did  Charles  Carter,  the  result  of  the  first  heat  might  have 
been  difi'erent.     But  what  shall  be  said  of  the  incomparable 


Ji90  THE   HOKSE. 

daughter  of  Trustee  and  Bonnets  o'  Blue.  Too  much  cannot  be 
said  of  her,  or  of  her  jockey.  She  ran  as  true  as  steel,  as  game 
and  honest  a  race  as  was  ever  recorded  of  a  high-mettled 
racer. 

Both  horses  cooled  out  well.  Boston  always  blows  tremen- 
dously, even  after  a  gallop,  but  he  seemed  little  distressed. 
Neither  was  Fashion  ;  her  action  is  superb,  and  as  she  came 
through  on  the  fourth  mile,  it  was  remarked  that  she  was  play- 
ing her  ears  as  if  taking  her  exercise.  She  recovered  sooner 
than  Boston,  and  though  her  friends  now  offered  large  odds  on 
her,  Boston's  were  no  less  confident ;  the  seventh  mile  they 
thought  would  "  fetch  her."  We  should  not  have  been  sur- 
prised to  have  seen  both  swell  over  the  loins,  nor  to  have  found 
them  greatly  distressed.  We  examined  them  carefully  after 
the  heat,  and  state  with  great  pleasure,  that  though  tliey 
"blowed  strong,"  they  recovered  in  a  few  minutes,  and 
came  to  the  post  again  comparatively  fresh.  After  the  heat 
was  over,  the  crowd  rushed  into  the  enclosed  space  en  masse  y 
an  endeavor  was  made  to  clear  a  portion  of  the  track  of  the 
multitude  who  had  now  taken  possession  of  it,  and  after  great 
exertions,  a  lane  was  formed,  through  which  the  horses  came 
up  for  the 

Second  Heat. — Fashion  led  off  with  a  moderate  stroke,  and 
carried  on  the  running  down  the  back  stretch  with  a  lead  of 
about  three  lengths.  After  making  the  ascent  of  the  hill  Bos- 
ton challenged,  closed  the  gap,  and  lapped  her.  A  tremendous 
shout  arose  on  all  hands  at  this  rally,  but  as  it  subsided  on  the 
part  of  Boston's  friends,  it  was  again  more  tumultuously  caught 
up  by  the  friends  of  the  mare,  as  she  outfooted  him  before 
reaching  the  head  of  the  quarter  stretch.  She  came  through — 
in  Im.  59s. — three  or  four  lengths  ahead,  and  kept  up  her  rate 
down  the  entire  straight  stretch  on  the  rear  of  the  course.  After 
getting  over  the  hill,  Boston,  as  before,  made  a  rush,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  collaring  the  mare,  while  she,  as  before,  again  threw 
him  off,  and  led  through  by  two  or  three  lengths  in  Im.  SYs. 
Gil.  relieved  his  horse  for  the  next  600  yards,  but  instead  of 
waiting  for  Fashion  to  ascend  the  hill,  at  the  half  mile  post, 
alone,  he  called  on  Boston  just  before  reaching  it,  and  the  two 
went  over  it  nearly  together  ;  no  sooner  had  they  commenced 


THE    SECOND    HEAT.  297 

the  descending  ground,  than  gathering  all  his  energies  for  a 
final  and  desperate  effort,  Boston  made  a  dash,  and  this  time  he 
succeeded  in  taking  the  track.  TJie  scene  which  ensued  we 
have  no  words  to  describe.  Such  cheei-ing,  such  betting,  and 
so  many  long  faces,  was  never  seen  nor  heard  before.  After  be- 
ing compelled  to  give  up  the  track,  Joe  Laird,  with  the  utmost 
prudence  and  good  sense,  took  his  mare  in  hand,  and  gave  her 
time  to  recover  her  wind.  This  run  took  the  shine  out  of  Bos- 
ton !  Instead  of  pulling  him  steadily,  and  refreshing  him  with 
a  slight  respite,  Gil.  Patrick  kept  him  at  his  work  after  he  took 
the  track,  and  ran  this  mile — the  third — in  Im.  51|s.  The  pace 
was  tremendous.  Nothing  short  of  limbs  of  steel  and  sinews 
of  catgut  could  stand  up  under  such  a  press.  On  the  first  turn 
after  passing  the  stand,  Fashion,  now  fresh  again,  made  a  dash, 
and  as  Boston  had  not  another  run  left  in  him,  she  cut  him 
down  in  her  sti-ide,  opposite  the  quarter  mile  post,  and  the  thing 
was  out.  The  race,  so  far  as  Boston  was  concerned,  was  past 
praying  for !  If  any  thing  can  parallel  Fashion's  turn  of  speed 
it  is  her  invincible  game.  She  now  gradually  dropped  him, 
and  without  another  effort  on  his  part  to  retrieve  the  fortunes 
of  the  day,  she  came  home  a  gallant  and  easy  winner  in  7m. 
45s.  Boston  pulled  up  inside  of  the  distance  stand,  and  walked 
over  the  score !  As  she  came  under  the  Judges'  cord  extended 
across  the  course,  Boston  was  exactly  sixty  yards  behind,  though 
he  could  have  placed  himself  in  a  better  position  had  Gil.  called 
upon  him.  As  Joe  Laird  rode  Fashion  back  to  the  stand,  the 
shouts  were  so  deafening,  that  had  not  the  President  of  the 
Club  and  another  gentleman  held  on  to  her  bridle,  she  would 
have  not  only  "  enlarged  the  circle  of  her  acquaintance  "  very 
speedily,  but  "  made  a  mash  "  of  some  dozen  of  "  the  rank  and 
file  "  then  and  there  assembled.  She  looked  as  if  another  heat 
would  not  "  set  her  back  any." 

And  thus  did  the  E'orth  settle  its  account  with  the  South, 
for  the  victory  achieved  by  Bascombe  over  Post  Boy.  It  was 
a  magnificent  race — one  which  will  be  remembered  by  every 
one  who  witnessed  it  "  while  memory  holds  her  seat."  Though 
beaten,  it  is  conceded  on  all  hands  that  Boston  has  acquired  a 
more  "  vast  renown  "  by  this  wonderful  race  than  by  his  thirty- 
five  previous  victories  combined.     He  is  worth  more  since,  than 


298  THE    HOKSE. 

he  was  before  the  match.  "  All  that  can  be  said  is,  that  Boston 
has  beaten  himself,  and  Fashion  has  beaten  Boston  !  "  The  spirit 
of  his  owners  on  this  as  upon  a  like  memorable  occasion  in  May, 
1823,  is  worthy  of  them  and  of  the  Old  Dominion.  Of  one  of 
them  it  has  been  well  said,  that,  "  like  another  Napoleon,  he  is 
never  more  to  be  feared  than  in  his  reverses !  " 

In  congratulating  each  other  upon  the  brilliant  triumph 
achieved  by  the  ]S"orthern  Champion — now.  the  Champion  of 
the  American  Turf — let  no  one  forget  to  do  honor  to  those  to 
whose  admirable  skill  and  judgment  the  ]N"ortli  is  mainly  in- 
debted for  its  victory.  To  Mr.  Samuel  Laird,  the  trainer  and 
manager  of  Fashion,  and  to  his  fine  spirited  son,  who  jockeyed 
her  in  a  style  that  would  have  conferred  credit  upon  Jem  Rob- 
inson, too  much  credit  cannot  be  given.  IS^ox  let  us  forget  that 
to  the  gallant  Boston  we  are  indebted  for  ascertaining  the  in- 
domitable game  and  surpassing  speed  of  our  Champion.  What 
else  could  have  displayed  it  in  such  bold  and  beautiful  relief? 
Arthur  Taylor  brought  him  to  the  post  in  the  very  finest  possi- 
ble condition,  and  Gil.  Patrick,  his  jockey,  rarely  distinguished 
himself  more  than  upon  this  occasion.  Most  of  our  contempo- 
raries state  that  he  rode  with  spurs.  He  wore  one  only,  and 
that  only  in  the  second  heat. 

It  is  peculiarly  gratifying  to  ourselves,  though  we  have  the 
pleasure  of  numbering  all  the  parties  among  our  jjersonal 
friends,  that  Mr.  G-ibbons,  the  owner  of  Fashion,  is  among  the 
oldest,  most  stanch,  and  most  generous  of  the  number.  Un- 
fortunately he  was  prevented  from  witnessing  the  race,  in  con- 
sequence of  an  accident  which  for  some  time  has  confined  him 
at  home.  In  his  absence,  another  tried  friend,  "Walter  Livings- 
ton, Esq.,  the  owner  of  Trustee — the  sire  of  Fashion — was  con- 
gratulated on  all  hands  ;  he  has  never  doubted  Fashion's  suc- 
cess from  the  first.  Col.  W.  Larkin  White,  of  Virginia,  who 
was  also  in  attendance,  came  in  for  a  liberal  portion  of  the  good 
feeling  displayed.  N"or  should  it  go  unrecorded  that  Col.  John- 
son was  by  no  means  forgotten  in  the  general  outburst  of  con- 
gratulation. He  "  sold  the  stick  which  broke  his  own  head," 
and  no  mistake,  for  after  breeding  Bonnets  o'  Blue  from  his  own 
Sir  Charles,  and  running  her  with  great  success,  he  parted  with 
her  to  Mr.  Gibbons,  who  bred  from  her  a  filly,  which  has  beaten 


RECAPITULATION. 


299 


the  best  horse  Col.  Johnson  has  ever  had  in  his  stable,  since  the 
days  of  his  favorite  Eeality,  the  renowned  grand-dam  of  Fashion 
herself. 


EEC  APITU  L  ATION. 


$5,000  ft,  four-mile 


TUESDAY,  May  10, 1842.— Match,  the  North  vs.  the  South,  $20,000  a 

heats. 
Henry  H.  Toler's— "William  Gibbons,— ch.  m.  Fashion,  by  Imp.  Trustee,  out  of  Bonnets 

o'  Blue — Mariner's  Dam — by  Sir  Charles,  5  years.  111  lbs Joseph  Laivd. 

Col.  "Wm.  E.  Johnson's  and  James  Long's  ch.  h.  Boston,  by  Tlmoleon,  out  of  Eobin  Brown's 

dam  by  Ball's  Florizel,  9  yrs.,  126  lbs. Oil.  Patnck. 


FiBST  Heat. 


Time  of  First  mile, 
"     '•   Second  mile, 
"     "    Third  mile, 
"     "   Fourth  mile, 

TimeofFrst  Heat, 


1  53 

1  50i 

1  54 

1  55 

T  32i 


Second  Heat. 


Time  of  First  mile, 
"      "  Second  miie, 
"     "   Third  mile, 
"     "   Fourth  mile. 

Time  of  Second  Heat, 


1  59 

1  5T 

1  51i 

1  57* 

T  45 


At  the  Jockey  Club  Dinner,  after  the  match,  Mr.  Long  of- 
fered to  run  Boston  against  Fashion,  for  $20,000,  $5,000  for- 
feit, four-mile  heats,  at  any  time  to  be  agreed  upon  by  the  par- 
ties between  the  25th  of  September  and  the  25th  of  October, 
next. 

He  also  authorized  us  to  state  in  our  Extra.,  that  he  would 
bet  $1,000  he  wins  with  Boston  the  regular  Jockey  Club  purse, 
four-mile  heats,  on  Friday,  on  the  Union  Course, — $1,000  that 
Boston  -wins  the  Jockey  Club  purse  at  Ti-enton,  and  $1,000  that 
Boston  wins  the  Jockey  Club  purse  at  Camden,  the  week  fol- 
lowing. 

Last  Day. — ^The  attraction  of  three  races,  in  one  of  which 
Boston  was  to  contend  with  a  son  of  Bonnets  o'  Blue,  drew  a 
large  assemblage  to  the  course,  and  they  were  amply  entertained 
by  a  race — if  not  so  brilliant  as  that  of  Fashion  on  Tuesday — 
at  least  as  critical  and  apparently  more  doubtful. 

The  sport  commenced  with  a  trial  of  speed  at  mile  heats  be- 
tween Tempest  and  Prima  Donna,  the  colt  winning  in  two 
heats,  the  latter  of  which  was  particularly  interesting.  Time, 
1.55 — 1.55.  Joe  Laird  jockied  the  winner,  who,  we  regret  to 
Bay,  was  sold  at  auction  after  the  race,  and  was  knocked  down 
for  the  paltry  sum  of  $180,  to  Capt.  Shirley,  of  the  7th  Hussars, 
B.  A.,  who  has  been  in  attendance  upon  our  races.  Other  stock 
was  offered,  but  we  learn  was  bid  in. 


300  THE    HORSE. 

Now  came  otf  the  great  race  of  the  day — the  struggle  be- 
tween Boston  and  Mariner.  The  former  was  backed  in  the 
morning  at  100  to  30,  and  before  the  start  at  100  to  20,  which 
were  not  taken  with  alacrity.  Boston  had  the  pole,  but  retained 
it  for  a  few  yards  only,  Mariner  going  to  the  front,  on  the  first 
turn,  and  leading  by  several  lengths.  The  pace  for  the  first 
mile  was  so  slow  as  2.13,  Mariner  cutting  out  the  work  ;  he  in- 
creased his  rate  in  the  second  mile,  which  was  run  in  about 
2.05,  opening  the  gap  on  the  backside  between  Boston  and  him- 
self, while  Boston  lessened  it  a  little  in  the  straight,  running  in 
front.  In  the  third  mile,  the  pace  was  still  further  improved, 
both  horses  tasting  the  persuaders  freely  ;  the  fourth  mile  was 
yet  more  desperately  contested,  though  without  much  change 
in  the  position  of  the  horses.  Boston,  who  was  ridden  by  Gil. 
without  spurs,  was  most  severely  scored  in  coming  home  ;  but 
as  it  was  all  in  vain,  he  pulled  up  inside  the  distance  stand. 
Mariner  came  in  amidst  the  most  tremendous  shouts  in  8.13. 

The  friends  of  Old  Whitenose  were  undismayed  by  the  loss 
of  the  heat,  and  he  still  retained  the  call  in  the  betting  at  about 
100  to  80.  As  in  the  former  heat  Joe  Laird  went  away  with 
the  lead,  and  driving  his  horse  at  a  much  better  pace  than 
before.  At  the  south  turn,  in  the  commencement  of  the  second 
mile,  the  old  horse  showed  a  taste  of  his  old  style  of  going,  chal- 
lenged for  the  lead  and  gained  it  in  a  twinkling.  ISTo  respite 
however  was  given  by  Joe  to  Mariner,  who  ran  well  up  through- 
out that  and  tlie  following  mile,  though  the  running  was  strongly 
forced  by  Gil.  Patrick.  In  the  first  quarter  of  the  fourth  mile, 
in  very  nearly  the  j)lace  where  Fashion  made  her  run,  Joe  went 
up  with  a  rush,  took  the  track  with  apparent  ease,  continued  to 
urge  his  horse  with  whip  and  spur,  and  widening  the  gap 
with  every  stride.  Before  they  came  into  straight  running 
home,  he  was  leading  by  six  or  eight  lengths,  and  the  race  was 
apparently  safe.  But  here  Gil.  Patrick  brought  uj)  his  nag  in 
a  style  quite  incomparable  ;  such  a  rush  we  do  not  remember 
ever  to  have  seen  made  ;  the  old  horse  appeared  to  sympathize 
with  his  eager  rider,  and  showed  all  of  that  speed  which  has 
won  for  him  his  great  renown.  Joe  did  not  appear  to  be  aware 
of  his  close  proximity  till  he  came  within  the  gates,  when  he 
too  found  his  whip  and  plied  it  lustily.    The  thing  was  out,  how- 


THE    THIKD    HEAT.  301 

ever,  for  nothing  but  a  locomotive  could  have  held  its  way  with 
Boston,  who  in  his  turn  came  home,  amid  the  enthusiastic  cries 
of  the  populace,  in  7.46.  Many  watches  made  the  time  a  half 
second  quicker ;  the  heat,  which  was  won  by  a  length,  was  the 
most  interesting  we  recollect  ever  to  have  seen.  We  have 
heard  the  riding  of  Joe  in  the  last  mile  criticised  ;  it  is  said  he 
took  too  much  out  of  his  horse  after  he  had  passed  Boston,  by 
forcing  the  running  as  he  did.  Our  impression  is  that  he  pur- 
sued the  safer  course,  and  that  he  lost  the  heat,  only,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  tremendous  speed  which  his  antagonist  exhibited 
in  the  quarter  stretch.  There  is  no  difterence  of  opinion  as  to 
the  masterly  style  in  which  Gil.  took  the  heat ;  it  would  com- 
pare favorably  with  any  performance  of  Chifney  or  Robinson. 

The  third  heat  was  scarcely  less  interesting  than  the  previous 
one.  Boston  took  up  the  running  early,  but  was  followed  by 
Mariner  at  the  best  pace  steel  and  catgut  could  get  out  of  him. 
This  severe  chase  continued  throughout  three  miles  and  a  half, 
when  Mariner  closed  up  a  little.  In  coming  into  the  quarter 
stretch  home,  Gil.  gave  the  pole  a  wide  birth,  and  Joe  imme- 
diately took  advantage  of  it,  and  made  a  rush  to  take  the  lead 
on  the  inside.  The  struggle  was  now  most  exciting,  as  Mariner 
was  evidently  drawing  rapidly  upon  his  antagonist.  At  about 
the  distance  stand  he  lapped  on  to  him,  when  Gil  appeared  to 
pull  his  horse  toward  the  pole  again,  and  thus  crossed  the  path 
of  Mariner,  and  interrupted  his  stride.  Tlie  pace  was  terrific, 
however,  till  the  finish,  Boston  taking  the  heat,  with  his  tail 
flirting  directly  in  the  face  of  his  competitor,  time  7.58^.  A 
complaint  was  then  made  of  foul  riding  against  the  winner,  but 
it  was  not  deemed  by  the  judges  to  be  substantiated,  and  the 
race  and  purse  were  accordingly  awarded  to  Boston.  All  know 
how  critical  and  hazardous  is  the  attempt  to  pass  a  leading 
horse  on  the  inside.  Many  believe  that  Joe  Laird  was  author- 
ized by  the  position  of  Boston  to  make  the  effort  he  did,  and 
that  but  for  being  crossed  and  crowded  he  would  have  won  the 
race  by  it.  The  rightful  authorities  decided  otherwise,  however, 
and  we  acquiesce  in  their  decision  without  hesitation. 

The  race  will  be  long  remembered  as  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting that  ever  came  off  on  Long  Island  ;  the  performance  of 
Mariner  surprised  all  his  friends  by  the  unwonted  sjpeed  which 


302  THE    HORSE. 

he  dispLayed,  while  he  ran  as  gams  a  race  as  any  horse  that  ever 
made  a  track.  After  the  wonderful  j^erformance  of  Boston  on 
Tuesday  last,  his  race  of  yesterday  will,  we  have  no  doubt,  be 
esteemed  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  annals  of  the  Turf. 
— Spirit  of  the  Times,  vol.  xii.,  124. 


Those  superb  animals,  Boston  and  Fashion,  never  met  again, 
though  both  fully  maintained  their  distinction. 

Fashion's  races  with  Peytona  have  been  elsewhere  described. 
In  the  end,  she  was  trashed  off  her  feet,  and  beat  by  Passenger, 
when  she  was  not  in  a  condition  to  start  against  a  cocktail. 

Boston,  as  a  stallion,  has  done  as  nobly  for  the  country  in 
the  stud  as  he  did  on  the  track,  as  a  racer. 

Fashion  is,  as  yet,  untried,  but  I  am  happy  to  announce  on 
the  authority  of  her  owner,  Mr.  Reber,  of  Lexington,  Ohio,  that 
she  was  never  better,  and,  is  this  fall,  as  fine  as  a  four-year-old. 

H.  W.  H. 


PEDIGKEE, 

CHARACTERISTICS,  AND   PERFORMANCES  OF  LEXINGTON. 

Lexington  was  got  in  1851,  by  Boston,  dam  Alice  Carneal  bj 
Sarpedon,  gd.  Eowena  by  Sumpter,  g.  gd.  Lady  Gray  by  Eobin 
Gray,  g.  g.  gd.  Maria  by  Melzar,  g.  g.  g.  gd.  by  imp.  High- 
flyer, g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  by  imp.  Fearnongbt,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  by 
Ariel,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  by  imp.  Jack  of  Diamonds  out  of 
the  imp.  mare  Diamond,  both  imported  by  General  Alexander 
Spotteswood  of  Virginia. 

Boston. — See  his  pedigree  m  extenso  at  p.  280. 

Sarpedon  was  by  Emilins,  dam  Icaria  by  the  Flyer,  gd 
Parma  by  Dick  Andrews,  g.  gd.  May  by  Beningborough,  g.  g 
gd.  Primrose  by  Mambrino,  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Cricket  by  Herod,  g 
g.  g.  g.  gd.  Sophia  by  Blank,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Diana  by  Second 
g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Hanger's  Br.  mare  by  Stanyan's  Arab,  g.  g, 
g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Gipsey  by  ]S"o-tongued  Barb,  Makeless,  Royal 
mare. 

Emilins  was  by  Orville  out  of  Emily. — See  Genealogy  5, 
of  Priam. 

Dick  Andrews  was  by  Joe  Andrews,  dam  by  Highflyer, 
Cardinal  Puff,  Tatler,  Snip,  Godolphin  A.,  Frampton's  White- 
neck,  Pelliam  Barb  mare. 

Joe  Andrews  was  by  Eclipse,  dam  Amaranda  by  Omnium, 
Cloudy  by  Blank,  Crab,  Widdrington  mare  by  Partner. 

Beninborough, — His  pedigree  entire  in  Priam's  genealogy,  5. 

Mambrino  was  got  by  Engineer,  dam  by  Cade,  Bolton  Lit- 


304  THE    HORSE. 

tle-Jolm,  Favorite,  son  of  the  Bald  Galloway,  dam  of  DaiFodill 
by  Sir  T,  Gascoigne's  foreign  horse. 

SuMPTER  was  by  Sir  Arcliy,  dam  by  Robin  Redbreast,  own 
sister  to  the  dam  of  Rattler,  Childers  and  Flirtilla,  g.  d.  by  imp. 
Obscurity,  g.  g.  d.  by  Slamerkin,  by  imp.  Wildair,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Delancy's  Cub  mare. 

Robin  Redbreast,  imp.,  was  by  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  dam  Wren, 
by  Woodpecker,  grand  dam  Sir  Peter's  dam. 

There  are  seven  Rattlers  in  Mason,  one  in  Edgar. 

Robin  Gray  was  by  imported  Royalist,  dam  by  Grey  Dio- 
med,  grand  dam  imp.  St.  George,  g.  d.  Cashier. 

Royalist  was  by  Saltram,  dam  a  Herod  mare,  Carina,  by 
Maske,  Blank,  Dizzy  by  Driver,  Smiling  Tom,  Miss  Hip  by 
Oysterfoot,  Merlin,  Commoner,  Copper  Mare. 

Saltram  was  by  Snap,  dam  Yirago,  Regulus,  sister  to  Black 
and  All  Black. 

Grey  Diomed  was  by  Medley,  Sloe,  Yaliant,  imp.  mare  Ca- 
lista.     She  is  not  in  the  Stud  Book. 

St.  George  was  by  Highflyer,  dam  sister  to  Soldier  by 
Eclipse,  Miss  Spindleshanks,  Omar,  Starling,  Godolj^hin. 

Cashier,  his  sire,  is  unknown  ;  and  his  dam,  imp.  Mary  Gray, 
is  not  in  the  Stud  Book. 

Melzar  was  by  imp.  Medley,  dam  by  Wildair,  gd.  by  imp, 
Yampire,  dam  imjD.  Kitty  Fisher. 

Medley  was  .by  Gimcrack,  Arminda  by  Snap,  Miss  Cleve- 
land by  Regulus,  Midge  by  a  son  of  Bay  Bolton ;  Bartlett's 
Childers,  Honeywood's  Arabian,  dam  of  the  two  True  Blues. 

Yampire  was  by  Wilson's  Arabian  out  of  Wildair's  dam. 

Kitty  Fisher  was  by  Cade,  her  dam  by  the  Godolphin,  and 
said  to  be  out  of  Bald  Charlotte  ;  but  the  last  point  cannot  be 
established. 

Imp.  Highflyer  was  by  Highflyer,  out  of  Angelica  by  Snap, 
Regulus,  BartJett's  Childers,  Honeywood's  Arabian,  dam  of  the 
two  True  Blues. 

Fearnought  was  by  Regulus,  Silvertail  by  WhitenosCs 
Rattler,  Darley  Arabian,  Old  Child  mare,  Gresley  Arabian, 
Yixen,  Helmsley  Turk,  Dodworth's  dam. 

Ariel  was  by  Moreton's  Traveller,  out  of  Tasker's  imported 
mare  Selima. 

This  Ariel  is  not  to  be  found  in  Edgar's  Stud  Book. 


DESCRIPTION    OF    LEXIXGTON.  305 

Imp.  Traveller  was  by  Croft's  Partner,  Bloody  Buttocks, 
Greyhound,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  &c. 

Tasker's  Selima  was  by  tlie  Godolpbin,  her  dam  unknown. 

Selim. — ^There  are  six  Selims  in  Edgar  besides  the  English 
Horse  by  Black  and  All  Black,  also  Othello,  out  of  Selima, 
which  is,  I  presume,  the  horse  intended. 

Jack  of  Diamonds,  said  to  be  by  the  CuUen  Arabian,  Darley 
Arabian,  Byeiiy  Turk,  Taffolet  Barb,  White  Tm-k,  jSTatural 
Barb  mare ;  said  also  to  have  been  imported  by  Col.  Spottes- 
wood,  of  Virginia.  But  there  is  no  evidence  whatever  that 
there  ever  was  any  such  horse,  by  the  English  books. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  imported  mare  Diamond. 
There  is  no  such  mare  in  any  English  record,  nor  any  cer- 
tainty that  she  ever  existed.  Diamond  has  always  been  a  horse's 
name.  She  is  said  to  have  been  got  by  Hautboy  out  of  a  Eoyal 
mare. 

This  pedigree  of  Lexington  is,  it  seems  to  me,  susceptible  of 
considerable  doubt,  in  several  points,  connected  with  the  descent 
of  his  dam  Alice  Carneal.  She  was  foaled  in  Kentucky,  in 
1836,  never  seems  to  have  won  a  race,  but  ran  second  in  the 
first  heat  of  a  four-mile  race  to  Miss  Foote,  in  7.42,  the  best 
time  ever  made  in  Kentucky,  though  she  was  distanced  in  the 
second  heat.  It  is,  however,  not  to  be  doubted  that  she  is 
thoroughbred,  Lexington's  performances  making  it  impossible 
that  it  should  be  otherwise ;  although  the  record  of  her  ances- 
try is,  I  presume,  irrecoverably  lost.  It  seems  to  me,  that  it 
would  be  far  better  to  own  up  frankly  that  such  is  the  case, 
than  to  endeavor  to  trump  up  such  questionable  pedigrees  as 
much  of  the  above.  I  do  not  intend  this  remark  to  apply  in  the 
least  degree  to  the  owner,  but  to  the  compilers  of  spurious  pedi- 
grees, sent  for  admission  to  respectable  publications,  periodical 
or  other,  in  which  publication  is  held  to  imply  undoubted  au- 
thenticity. 

This  noble  racer  is  well  described,  as  follows ; — 

CHAEACTEEISTICS  OF  LEXINGTON. 

Lexington  is  a  blood  bay,  about  fifteen  hands  three  inches 
high,  with  fore  and  hind  feet  and  pasterns  and  a  small  portion 
of  his  hind  legs  above  pasterns  white.     His  bones  are  not  par- 
VoL^I.— 20 


306  THE    HORSE. 

ticularly  large,  except  the  back  bone,  which  is  unusually  so. 
His  muscle  is  abundant,  dry  and  sinewy,  without  any  cumbrous 
flesh  ;  his  ears,  which  are  handsome  and  wide  apart,  are  beauti- 
fully placed ;  his  head,  though  not  small,  is  bony,  clean,  and 
handsome.  His  nostrils  being  large,  the  jawbone  is  uncommon- 
ly wide,  and  the  jaws  wide  apart,  affording  abundant  room  for 
a  clear  and  well  detached  throttle.  His  left  eye  full  and  mild, 
though  animated  ;  his  right  eye  has  lost  its  convexity  from 
disease ;  ""  he  has  a  noble  countenance,  indicating  good  temper 
and  disposition,  for  which  he  is  remarkable.  His  neck  rises  well 
from  his  shoulders,  and  joins  his  head  admirably.  His  shoulder 
has  a  very  wide  bone,  very  strong,  well  displayed,  particularly 
oblique,  and  rises  sufficiently  high  at  the  withers,  without  any 
of  that  superfluous  neck  so  frequently  seen  to  surmount  the 
shoulders  two  or  three  inches,  which  cannot  add  to  power  or 
easy  motion.  His  arms  come  out  well  from  the  body,  are  suf- 
ficiently wide  apart  for  a  good  chest,  and  are  long,  muscular, 
and  strong.  His  back  of  medium  length,  coupling  pretty  well 
back,  a  loin  wide,  slightly  arched  and  very  powerful.  His  body 
will  bear  the  most  rigid  scrutiny — it  looks  pei'fection,  being 
ribbed  in  the  best  possible  manner,  and  very  deep  throughout, 
which  makes  his  legs  appear  shoi't,  while  at  the  same  time  he 
has  a  great  reach.  His  hips  are  not  remarkably  wide,  though 
strong,  and  in  the  sweep  down  to  and  embracing  the  hock,  he 
has  rarely  an  equal.  His  feet  though  mostly  white,  are  excel- 
lent, as  are  his  logs,  with  good  bone,  clear,  strong  tendons,  and 
good  proportion:^,  uniting  in  their  motion  great  ease  and  cor- 
rectness. His  action  cannot  be  surpassed ;  bold,  free,  elastic, 
and  full  of  power ;  and  with  his  elegance  of  action,  and  a  re- 
markable racing-like  form  throughout,  he  unites  great  beauty 
and  grandeur. 

The  above  description,  taken  from  the  New  Orleans  Dail}'- 
Picayune,  is  said  to  be  strikingly  correct ;  while  the  portrait 
accompanying  these  pages,  engraved  on  steel  by  Mr.  Duthie, 
from  an  original  lithograph  published  by  Mr.  Currier  of  this 
city,  with  the  authority  and  approbation  of  his  owner,  Mr. 
Tenbroeck,  is  admitted  to  be  a  very  lifelike  representation  of 
this  truly  high-flnished  racer,  when  in  training  to  run. 

•  He  has,  since  this  was  written,  I  regret  to  say,  gone  blind. — H.  W.  H. 


PERFOK:\rAXCKS    OF    LEXTXGTOX.  SOT 

I  have  recently  seen  another  likeness  by  Mr.  Trove,  which 
depicts  him  as  a  stouter,  heavier-bodied,  and  shorter-legged  ani- 
mal than  our  picture,  but  I  understand  that  it  was  taken  when 
he  was  fat  and  out  at  grass,  which  every  horseman  knows  has  a 
tendency  to  let  down  the  belly  and  make  the  frame  grosser  and 
more  fleshy.  The  points,  however,  in  both,  so  closely  agree, 
that  the  one  portrait  confirms  and  authenticates  the  other. 

Up  to  the  date  of  the  remarkable  contests  of  which  a  descrip- 
tion immediately  ensues,  Lexington's  performances  were  as 
follows. 

PEEFOKMANCES    OF   LEXINGTOK. 

His  first  appearance,  under  his  present  name,*  was  in  his 
three-year-old  form,  on  the  Metairie  Course,  l^ew  Orleans,  on 
which  all  his  laurels  have  been  won,  Dec.  2d,  1853,  in  a  match- 
race,  on  the  following  terras  ; — 

Match  for  |S,500— $5,000  on  Sally  Waters  against  $3,500  on  Lexington.    Three-mile  heats,  h.  a. 
E.  Ten  Broeck's  b.  c.  Lexivgton,  by  Boston,  out  of  xVlice  Carneal,  by  Sarpedon,  3  years.      1     1 
L.  Smith's  b.  f.  Sally  Waters,  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  out  of  Maria  Black,  4  years.        .        .         2  dist 
Time,  6m.  23is.— 6m.  24is.    Track  heavy. 

Such  was  the  promising  commencement  of  an  extraordinary 
career,  which,  for  its  short  duration,  has  been  unequalled  in  the 
history  of  the  American  Turf. 

His  second  appearance  was  in  three-year-old  stakes  on  the 
Metaii-ie  Course,  at  New  Orleans,  January  7,  1854,  two-mile 
heats,  four  subscribers,  when  he  paid  forfeit  to  Conrad  the  Cor- 
sair, Argent,  and  Hornpipe. 

On  the  1st  of  April  of  the  same  year,  and  on  the  same  course, 
he  started  for  the  great  State  Post  Stakes  for  all  ages — 3  yr.  olds, 
86  pounds  ;  4  yr.  olds,  100  pounds  ;  5  yr.  olds,  110  pounds  ;  6 
yr.  olds,  118  pounds  ;  Y  yrs.  old,  and  upwards,  124  pounds ; 
allowing  three  pounds  to  mares  and  geldings.    Four-mile  heats. 

ENTRIES  STARTED  FOR  THE  SWEEPSTAKES. 

For  Kentucky,  b.  c.  Lexington,  by  Boston,  out  of  Alice  Carneal,  by  Imp.  Sarpedon, 

3  years  old, 11 

For  Mississippi,  ch.  c.  Z«<?oOTfe,  by  Boston,  out  of  Reel,  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  3  yrs.    .        .  2    2 
For  Alabama,  ch.  c.  Htghlander,  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  out  of  Castanet,  by  Imp.  Monarch, 

4  years  old, 3  dist. 

For  Louisiana,  ch.  g.  Arrow,  by  Boston,  out  of  Jeanneton,  by  Imp.  Leviathan,  .  dist. 

*  He  had  won  twice  before,  in  the  May  of  the  same  year,  at  Lexington,  Ky., 
mile-heats,  and  two-mile  heats,  under  the  name  of  Barley. — H.  W.  H. 


808 


THE    HORSE. 


This  was  the  first  taste  of  the  quality  of  the  noble  rivals. 
The  course  is  stated  to  have  been  very  heavy,  and  the  time 
made  justifies  the  statement,  as  it  gives  no  token  for  their  sub- 
sequent mighty  achievements. 


FIEST  HEAT. 

SECOND  HEAT. 

Time  of  1st  mUe,       .        .        . 
2d     "       .        .        . 
8d     "  .       .       .       . 
"          4th   "... 

.  2.01 
.       2.02 

.  2.014 
.        2.04i 

Time  of  1st  mile, 

2d     «       .        .        . 
8d     «    .        .        .        . 
4th    "... 

.  2.( 
2.( 

.  l.E 
l.t 

Time  of  first  heat, 

.        8.0SJ 

Time  of  second  heat, 

.  8. 

The  next  appearance  of  the  two  rivals  was  on  the  8th  day 
of  the  same  month,  when  they  again  came  together,  on  the  same 
course,  for  the  Jockey  Club  Purse,  with  a  very  difterent  rate  of 
going,  and  a  difi'erent  result. 

Jockey  Club  Purse  $2,000,  all  ages  ;  weight  as  above. 


ENTRIES  STARTED  EOE  THE  PUPwSE. 

T.  J.  Wells'  ch.  c.  Lecomte,  by  Boston,  out  of  Eeel,  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  8  years,  carried 

8  pounds  overweight, 11 

A.  L.  Bingaman's  b.  c.  Lexington,  by  Boston,  out  of  Alice  Carneal,  by  Imp.  Sarpedon, 

8  years, 2    2 

Judge  Hunter's  ch.  g.  Eeube,  by  Imp.  Trustee,  out  of  Minstrel,  by  Medoc,  aged,    .       .        8  dist. 

This  race  was  the  fastest  that  at  that  time  had  ever  been  run, 
and  gave  occasion  to  the  long  and  eventful  struggle  which  fol- 
lowed, as  will  be  seen  by  the  following  record. 


riEST  HEAT. 

SECOND  HEAT. 

Time  of  1st  mile. 

.  i.-^s 

Time  of  1st  mile. 

.    2.02 

2d     "       .       .        . 

1.54 

"           2d     "        .        .        . 

.        1.58 

8d     "    .        .       .        . 

.   1.494 

8d     "    .        ...        . 

.   1.46 

4th   "... 

.        1.494 

4th    "... 

.       1.52J 

Time  of  first  heat,    . 

.   T.2G 

Time  of  second  heat. 

.  T.8SJ 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  he  j^aid  forfeit  at  the  Na- 
tional Course,  Long  Island,  not  being  at  the  JSTorth  at  the  time  ; 
but  it  was  understood  that  Mr.  Ten  Broeck  was  still  so  confident 
of  his  horse's  qualities,  that  he  was  prepared  to  run  him  again 
either  against  Lecomte,  or  against  Lecomte's  time,  if  his  owner 
should  decline  the  contest ;  and  so  great  was  the  confidence  of 
the  sporting  world  in  that  gentleman's  excellent  judgment,  that, 
in  spite  of  the  apparently  desperate  chance  of  beating  such  time 
as  7m.  26s.,  many  were  found  to  back  his  opinion ;  and  in  the 
end  found  their  advantage  in  the  steadfastness  of  their  faith. 


PEDIGKEE, 

CHARACTERISTICS,  AND  PERFORMANCES  OF  LECOMTE. 

Lecomte  is  by  Boston  out  of  Eeel,  by  Glencoe,  g.  dam  Gal- 
lopacle  by  Catton,  g.  gr.  dam  Camillina  by  Camillns,  g.  g.  gr. 
dam  by  Sraolensko,  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  Miss  Cannon  by  Orville, 
g.  g.  g.  g.  gi".  dam  Weathercock  mare,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam 
Cora  by  Matcbem,  Turk,  Cub,  Allwortby,  Starling,  Bloody 
Buttocks,  Greyhound,  Brocklesby  Betty,  Curwen  Bay  Barb, 
Hobby  Mare,  Lister  Turk. 

Boston. — ^His  pedigree  in  extenso  is  above,  on  page  276. 

Glencoe. — ^His  pedigree,  Genealogy  ISTo.  YI. 

Catton  was  by  Golumpus,  dam  Lucy  Gray,  by  Timothy,  gr. 
dam  Lucy  by  Florizel,  g.  gr.  dam  Frenzy  by  Eclipse,  g.  g.  gr. 
dam  by  Engineer,  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  by  Blank,  g.  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam 
Lass  of  the  Mill  by  Traveller,  Miss  Makeless,  &c. 

Golumpus  was  by  G(  thanna,  dam  Catharine  by  "Woodpecker, 
Camilla  by  Trentham,  &c. 

Engineer  was  by  Sampson,  Y.  Greyhound,  Curwen's  Bay 
Barb. 

Traveller  was  by  Partner,  Almanzor  Grey,  Hautboy,  Make- 
less,  Brimmer. 

Miss  Makeless  was  by  a  son  of  Greyhound  out  of  Farewell, 
dam  by  Partner — Woodcock — Croft's  Bay  Barb — Makeless. 

For  Timothy,  Florizel,  Eclipse,  Blank,  Gohanna,  &c.  &c., 
see  Genealogies  from  l^o.  I.  to  YH. 

Camillus  was  by  Hambletonian,  dam  Faith  by  Pacolet,  gr. 
dam  Atalanta  by  Matchem,  g.  gr.  dam  Maid  of  the  Mill  by 


810  THE    HORSE. 

Oroonoko,  g.  g.  gr,  dam  sister  to  the  Lass  of  the  Mill,  by  Travel- 
ler, out  of  Miss  Makeless. 

Pacolet  was  by  Blank,  dam  Whiten eck  by  old  Crab — Go- 
dolphin —  Conger's  Arab — Curwen's  Barb — Marshall's  Spot — • 
Lowther  Barb — Old  Yintner  mare. 

Hainbletonian  was  by  King  Fergus — Highflyer — Monimia, 
by  Matchem — Alcides — Crab — Snap's  dam. 

Oroonoko  was  by  Whitefoot — Miss  Slamerkin  by  Yonng 
True  Blue — Oxford  Arabian — Darcy  Royal  mare. 

Smolensko  was  by  Sorcerer,  dam  Wowski  by  Mentor,  gr. 
dam  Waxy's  dam  by  Herod,  g.  gr.  dam  Lisette  by  Snap,  g.  g. 
gi-.  dam.  Miss  Windsor  by  the  Godolphin,  g.  g.  g.  gr.  dam  sister 
to  Yolunteer — Young  Belgrade — Bartlett's  Childers. 

Sorcerer  was  by  Trumpator,  dam  Young  Giantess — Diomed — 
Giantess — Matchem — Babraham — Cole's  Foxhunter — Partner. 

Mentor  was  by  Justice,  dam  by  Shakspeare — Miss  Mere- 
dith— Large  Hartley  mare. 

Yolunteer  was  by  Young  Belgrade — Bartlett's  Childers — 
Devonshire  Arab — Curwen  Bay  Barb — Old  Spot — Woodcock. 

Young  Belgrade  was  by  the  Belgrade  Turk — Bay  Bolton — 
Scarborough  mare. 

Old  Spot  was  by  the  Selaby  Turk. 

Woodcock,  brother  to  Castaway,  was  by  Merlin,  son  of 
Brimmer. 

Oeville  was  by  Beningborough,  dam  Evelina  by  Highflyer, 
gr.  dam  Termagant  by  Tantrum,  g.  gr.  dam  by  Regulus,  g.  g.  gr. 
dam  Marske's  dam. 

WEATnp:RCOCK:  was  by  Highflyer,  dam  Trinket  by  Matchem, 
gr.  dam  Miss  Elliot — Gimcrack's  dam  by  Grisewood's  Partner — 
g.  gr.  dam  Celia  by  Partner — Bloody  Buttocks — Greyhound — 
Brocklesby  Betty. 

Grisewood's  Partner  was  by  Partner,  dam  by  Button's  gray 
Barb — Whynot — Wilkinson  Turk — Woodcock. 

For  all  stallions  not  followed  out  to  the  end,  see  the  Genea- 
logical Tables,  as  above,  from  I.  to  YII. 

It  is  to  be  observed  here  that  the  above,  substituting  English 
Sovereign  for  Boston,  is  the  pedigree  of  Prioress,  who  is  half- 
sister  of  Lecomte. 


PEKFOKMANCES  OF  LECOMTE,  311 

Lecomte  is  a  rich  chestnut,  with  white  on  one  hind  leg, 
which  reaches  a  little  above  the  pastern  joint.  He  stands  fif- 
teen hands  three  inches  in  height.  Is  in  a  fine  racing  form, 
and  well  spread  throughout  his  frame,  with  such  an  abundance 
of  bone,  tendon  and  muscle,  that  he  would  be  a  useful  horse  for 
any  purpose.  His  temper  is  excellent ;  he  is  easily  placed  in  a 
race,  and  yet  responds  promptly  to  the  extent  of  his  ability. 
He  never  tears  himself  and  liis  jockey  to  pieces  by  attempting 
to  run  away.  His  action  is  low,  smooth,  and  easy.  His  stride 
is  about  twenty-three  feet,  and  he  gets  away  from  the  score  like 
a  quarter-horse.  He  has  a  constitution  of  iron,  the  appetite  of 
a  lion,  would  eat  sixteen  quarts  of  feed  if  it  was  given  to  him, 
and  can  stand  as  much  work  as  a  team  of  mules.  In  a  word, 
he  has  all  the  good  points  and  qualities  of  both  sire  and  dam, 
without  their  defects ;  consequently  he  is  about  as  fine  a  speci- 
men of  a  thoroughbred  as  can  be  found  in  this  or  any  other 
country. — Sjpirit  of  the  Times,  Nov.  9,  1856. 

PERFOEMAJS-CES    OF   LECOMTE. 

This  noble  horse  commenced  his  career  one  year  earlier, 
according  to  Southern  dates,  although  in  reality  only  one  month 
intervened  between  their  starting. 

Lecomte  running  in  April  as  a  two-year-old,  previous  to  the 
first  of  May,  while  in  the  May  of  the  same  year,  1853,  Lexing- 
ton ran  as  a  three-year-old. 

Lecomte's  first  debut  on  the  turf  was  for 


The  Sweepstakes,  two-year-olds,  colts  70  lbs.,  fillies  67  lbs.,  nine  Subscribers,  $500,  $200  ft.  Milo 
heats. 

T.  J.  Wells'  oh.  c.  Lecomte,  by  Boston  out  of  Keel, 11 

W.  J.  Minor's  ch.  c.  by  Voucher  out  of  Lady  Jane, 3    2 

I.  A.  Grinstead's  ch.  c.  Argent,  by  Glencoe  out  of  Picayune,  .......  5    8 

J.  G.  Boswell's  ch.  g.  by  Boston  out  of  Minerva  Anderson — carried  9  lbs.  overweight,        .  2    4 

J.  M.  Clay's  Zero,  by  Boston  out  of  Zenobia, 4  dfiL 

The  others  paid  forfeit— Zero's  rider  fell. 

Time,  1.  48*.— 1.  45J. 

Subsequently  on  Nov.  25th,  of  the  same  year,  at  the  Phar- 
salia  Course,  Natchez,  Mississippi,  he  won  the  three-year-old 
Sweepstakes,  as  below. 


312  THE    HOKSE, 

Sweepstakes  for  three-year-olds,  colts  80  lbs.,  fillies  83  lbs.,  six  subscribers  at  $400  each,  $100  forfeit. 
Two-mile  heats. 

T.  J.  "Wells'  ch.  c.  Lecomtc,  by  Boston  ont  of  Keel, 11 

A.  L.  Bingaman's  br.  f.  Atala,  by  Euffln,  out  of  Arraline  by  W.  Leviathan,    .        .        .        .22 

W.  J.  Minor's  ch.  g.  Oonrad  the  Corsair,  by  Voucher  out  of  Lady  Jane  by  Leviathan,        .      8  dst 

Time,  3.45J.— 8.46^. 

These  two  victories  summed  his  performances  for  his  first 
year,  and  he  stood  as  yet  unbeaten. 

In  tlie  following  spring,  he  opened  his  campaign  on  the  Me- 
tairie  Course,  ]S"ew  Orleans,  in  the  year  1854. 

January  6th.— Sweepstakes  for  three-year-olds,  colts  86  lbs.  fillies  83  lbs.,  three  subscribers,  at  $800 
each,  $100  ft.     Mile  heats. 

T.  J.  Wells'  ch.  c.  Lecomte,  by  Boston  out  of  Reel, 11 

D.  F.  Kcnner's  gr.  f.  by  Imp.  Glencoc  ont  of  Sally  Ward, 2    2 

W.  J.  Minor's  ch.  g.  by  Voucher  out  of  Lady  Jane,  paid  forfeit 
Time,  1.4T— 1.4T. 

Again  on  January  12th  he  started  for 

The  Jockey  Club  Purse,  $400,  for  all  ages,  8  year-olds,  86  lbs.,  4—100  lbs.,  5—110  lbs.,  6—118  lbs., 
7  and  upwards  124  lbs.,  allowing  mares  and  geldings  8  lbs. 

T.  J.  Wells' ch.  c.  Lecomte,  by  Boston  out  of  Keel,  3  years, 11 

W.J.Minor'sd.g.  Mary  Taylor,  by  Imp.  Sovereign  out  of  Clara  Howard,  4  years,       .       .82 
A.  L.  Bingaman's  ch.  g.  Joe  Blackburn,  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  dam  by  Frank,  8  years,       .       .43 

D.  F.  Kenner's  b.  f.  Medina,  by  Imp.  Sovereign  out  of  Flight,  4  years 2  dst. 

Time,  3.  54J.— 3  52f/ 

At  the  same  meeting,  on  AVednesday  19th,  he  again  ran  for 
the  purse  $300,  for  all  ages,  weight  as  above,  two-mile  heats. 

T.  J.  Wells'  Lecomte,  by  Boston  out  of  Keel,  3  years, 11 

T.  C.  Waple's  ch.  c.  by  Gallatin  out  of  Imp.  Cora,  3  years, 2    2 

Time,  3.44|.-8.35. 

On  the  first  of  April  following,  he  was  beaten  in  the  Great 
Stake,  Post  Stake  for  all  ages,  four-mile  heats,  by  Lexington,  as 
has  been  related  above  at  p.  307,  in  8.08f. — 8.04.  Arrow  and 
Highlander  being  distanced — the  former  in  the  first,  the  latter 
in  the  second  heat. 

Nothing  daunted,  however,  by  this,  his  first  reverse,  he,  on 
the  seventh  day  following — see  page  308 — turned  the  tables  on 
his  conqueror,  opening  the  eyes  of  the  world  by  the  unequalled 
time  for  two  four-mile  heats  of  Y.26 — Y.38|. 

He  thus  beat  Fashion's  time,  hitherto  the  fastest  on  record,  in 
the  first  heat  by  6^.,  in  the  second  heat  by  7  seconds,  and  doing 
what  had  certainly  never  been  accomplished  before,  within  the 
annals  of  "  recorded  time." 


PEEFOEMAJsCES    OF   LECOMTE. 


313 


Lexington  did  not  start  again  during  this  year,  but,  in  the 
autumn,  Lecomte  ran  on  the  Pharsalia  Coui'se  at  Xatchez,  Mis- 
sissippi. 

Wednesday,  2f  ov.  15th,  Association  purse,  $400,  ent.  10  per  cent,  added,  for  all  ages— 3  year  olds  86 
lbs.— 1, 100  lbs.— 5, 110  lbs.— 6, 118  lbs.— 7  and  upwards,  124  lbs.— 3  lbs.  allowed  to  mares  and  geld- 
ings.   Two-mile  heats. 

T.  J.  "Wells'  eh.  c.  Lecojnte  by  Boston  out  of  Eeel, 11 

A.  L.  Bingaman's  ch.  c.  Joe  Blackburn  by  Glencoe,  dam  by  Frank, 2    2 

Time  3.47^—3.46^. 

Three  days  after  this  he  walked  over  the  course  for  the  As- 
sociation of  four-mile  heats,  and  on  the  5th  of  December  follow- 
ing wound  up  his  glorious  campaign,  by  carrying  off  the  Jockey 
Club  purse  on  the  Metairie  Course,  for  all  ages. 

Tuesday,  Dec.  5th.  Jockey  Club  purse,  $400,  ent.  10  per  cent  added,  for  all  ages— 3  years  old,  86 
lbs. — i,  100  lbs.— 5, 110  lbs.— 0, 118  lbs.— 7  and  upwards,  124  lbs.— allowing  3  lbs.  to  mares  and 
geldings.    Two-mile  heats. 

T.  J.  "Wells'  ch.  c  Lecomte  by  Boston  out  of  Eeel,  4  years, 11 

A.  G.  Lecomte's  ch.  g.  Gallatlna  by  GaUatin  out  of  EUza  Mills,  3  years,        .        .        .        .22 
A.  L.  Bingaman's  ch.  g.  Joe  Blackburn  by  Glencoe,  dam  by  Frank, 2    3 


Time  of  First  mile,     . 
"      "  Second  mile. 


Time  of  First  Heat, 


u.     B. 

1    58 
1    58 


Second  Heat. 


Time  of  First  mile,      . 
"    "  Second  mile. 


Time  of  Second  Heat, 


H.     s. 

1    55 
1    57i 


No  more  extraordinary  campaign,  in  point  of  time,  had  ever 
been  made  in  the  United  States,  if  elsewhere,  and  at  its  termi- 
nation Lecomte  had  a  right  to  repose  on  his  laurels,  with  the 
renown  which  his  friends  challenged  for  him,  as  of  right,  of 
being  the  fastest  four-miler  in  the  world. 

Still  the  friends  of  Lexington,  and  he  lacked  not  a  host  of 
them,  were  in  no  sort  dismayed,  but  asserted  that  he  could  do 
better  than  he  had  done,  yea !  better  than  Lecomte  himself, 
and  held  themselves  in  readiness  in  the  coming  year,  1855,  to 
"  put  it  to  the  touch,  to  win  or  lose  it  all." 


THE  GEEAT  CONTEST 

OF 

LECOMTE    AND    LEXINGTON. 

THE    FIRST   EVENT. 

THE  FASTEST  TIME  ON  EECOED I    FOUE-MILE  HEATS  IN  7.26— 7.SS  8-4. 

"  The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away,"  saith  the  good 
book  ;  and  we  have  a  new  ilhistration  of  it  furnished  us  by  the 
events  of  yesterday's  race  on  the  Metairie  Course,  Fashion's 

7.32  and  7.45,  on  Long  Island,  in  1842,  and  George  Martin's 

7.33  and  7.43,  here,  in  1843,  the  two  best  races  that  have  ever 
been  run,  having  been  signally  beaten  by  the  winner  of  the 
day.  Where  is  Eclipse  now  ?  exclaimed  Young  America,  when 
Fashion  beat  Boston,  in  five  seconds  less  time  than  was  made 
by  the  conqueror  of  Henry.  Where  is  Fashion  now  ?  we,  in 
our  turn,  demand,  as  we  see  her  beaten,  in  six  seconds  and  a 
half  less  time  than  her  own. 

Truly,  we  live  in  a  progressive  age,  and  what  we  are  coming 
to,  who  can  tell? 

During  the  week  past,  the  question  had  been  repeatedly 
asked,  if  any  of  the  contestants  in  the  late  State  Stake-race 
would  run  again  during  the  present  season,  A  feverish  excite- 
ment pervaded  the  community  in  view  of  such  a  possible  event, 
and  the  conviction  was  freely  expressed  that  if  it  were  to  come 
off,  Lexington  would  be  likely  to  have  his  well-won  laurels 
cropped,  if  not  to  lose  them  entirely.  A  contest  between  Lexing- 
ton and  Lecomte  was  freely  talked  of  as  a  thing  that  must  be  ; 


LEXINGTON    AND    LECOMTE.  315 

and  when,  on  Friday  evening,  it  was  announced  on  the  course 
that  an  arrangement  to  that  effect  had  been  made,  and  that  the 
next  day  would  see  its  consummation,  the  news  spread  electri- 
cally, and  we  found  ourselves  again  in  the  midst  of  an  excite- 
ment, of  course. 

Every  thing  was  in  favor  of  the  prospect  for  sport,  Tlie  track 
was  in  tip-top  order,  confessedly.  The  day  rose  fair,  and  con- 
tinued so.  The  ride  to  the  course  was  delightful.  Every  thing 
seemed  to  favor  the  occasion.  From  an  early  hour  to  a  late 
one,  all  the  roads  were  filled  by  travellers,  availing  themselves 
of  every  kind  and  description  of  locomotion.  Every  thing,  from 
a  dray  to  a  four-in-hand,  was  in  requisition,  and  they  who  were 
"  too  late  for  the  wagon,"  walked.  Fully  ten  thousand  people 
must  have  been  present  on  the  stands  and  in  the  field.  The 
sight  was  truly  animating.  The  ladies,  as  upon  the  former  great 
occasion,  made  a  goodly  show  on  the  stands  appropriated  to 
them  by  the  gallantry  of  the  Club,  and  added  no  little  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  day.  Betting,  which  was  by  no  means  slow  in 
any  part  of  the  course,  ran  amusingly  high  in  this  department 
of  it,  and  we  saw  many  anti-Lecomte  bets  most  cheerfully  and 
smilingly  paid  by  laughing  losers,  while  many  musical  remind- 
ers that  Lexington  had  lost,  suggested  to  as  many  overtaken 
gentlemen  that  '-'- place  aux  dames*''  should  be  their  motto  in 
settling  their  books.  We  grieve  to  say  that  Lexington,  by  the 
by,  proved  to  be  the  favorite  to  a  great  extent  among  the  ladies, 
who,  we  will  do  them  the  credit  to  say,  paid  up  with  most  com- 
mendable promptness ;  so  far  as  they  could  do  so  on  the  field. 
Of  the  gloves,  and  handkerchiefs,  and  other  pretty  trifles,  which 
they  wagered,  we,  of  course,  can  not  speak  with  equal  con- 
fidence. 

The  race,  of  which  we  give  below  a  detailed  account,  was 
indeed  an  exciting  one.  Since  the  races  we  have  alluded  to  as 
hitherto  among  the  greatest  that  have  been  run,  there  has 
been  nothing  like  it ;  and  in  all  its  incidents,  from  the  start  to 
the  victory,  it  will  always  be  remembered  as  pre-eminently  the 
greatest  four-mile  race  on  record. 

The  betting  was  extremely  heavy  ;  still  it  was  less  than  on 
the  last  week's  race,  as  there  were  not  so  many  strangers  in  town, 
and  money  had  not  been  sent  here  from  abroad  to  be  invested 


?,{6  THE    HORSE. 

on  the  side  of  any  favorite.  Before  leaving  the  city,  Lexington 
was  the  favorite,  at  even  money,  against  the  field  ;  but  a  few 
minutes  before  the  race,  we  witnessed  some  transactions  in 
which  Lexington  was  backed  at  100  to  80  against  the  field,  or 
100  to  60  against  Lecomte.  Much  money  was  risked  on  time, 
but  the  lowest  time  that  we  could  hear  of  being  marked  was 
7  :  32. 

So  far  as  we  could  judge,  the  horses  all  appeared  to  be  in 
excellent  condition,  and  "  eager  for  the  fray,"  as  they  moved  to 
and  fro  before  the  stands,  to  the  admiration  of  the  anxious 
thousands. 

The  drum  taps ;  and  horses  dash  off  with  a  rush  for  the  first 
heat,  and  on  passing  the  first  turn,  Lecomte  led,  Lexington 
being  second,  and  Reube  trailing  behind,  but  at  as  fast  a  gait 
and  as  bold  a  stride  as  he  could  well  accomplish.  Their  position 
did  not  vary  for  nearly  three  miles,  although  the  pace  increased ; 
the  space  between  the  horses  at  times  increasing  and  diminish- 
ing, Lexington  several  times  making  a  brush  to  take  the  lead, 
but  Lecomte  increasing  his  speed  to  prevent  it.  On  entering 
the  fourth  mile,  and  on  the  back  stretch  of  it,  Lexington  partially 
closed  the  gap  that  Lecomte  had  opened  on  him,  and  attempted 
to  outfoot  him.  The  attempt  was  immense,  and  elicited  the 
loudest  encomiums  of  Lexington's  friends  and  backers  ;  but  it 
was  inefiectual.  The  spur  was  freely  used  to  induce  him  to  do 
what  his  friends  claimed  for  him,  that  he  was  the  fastest  horse 
in  the  world  at  a  brush  ;  but  Lecomte  bafiled  all  his  efibrts, 
kept  the  lead  and  won  the  heat,  amid  deafening  shouts,  by  six 
lengths,  in  much  the  quickest  time  ever  made  in  the  world — 
7:  26! 

If  the  result  of  the  heat  induced  great  shouting,  the  announce- 
ment of  the  time  produced  still  more  clamorous  demonstrations 
of  delight.  All  knew  that  the  heat  was  very  fast,  but  each  one 
of  the  hundred  persons  who  held  watches  could  scarcely  believe 
their  own  time,  until  the  judges  announced  it  oflicially. 

During  the  great  excitement  which  was  concentrated  on  the 
two  contending  horses,  Keube  had  almost  been  lost  sight  of, 
but  he  came  home  at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  making  the  best  heat 
by  far  that  he  ever  made  in  liis  life  ;  although,  as  the  red  flag 
descended,  he  barely  escaped  being  caught  behind  it. 


THE    SECOND    HEAT.  317 

Lexington  soon  after  the  heat  appeared  much  distressed,  as 
he  had  evidently  been  hard  driven  nearly  the  whole  distance  ; 
but  he  recovered  well  during  the  recess.  Reube  also,  to  appear- 
ance, after  the  heat,  showed  evident  symptoms  that  he  had 
been  running  a  harder  race  than  he  liked.  Lecomte,  who  to  all 
appearance  had  run  much  more  at  Ids  ease,  and  with  less  effort 
than  his  competitors,  not  having  been  spurred  during  the  heat, 
was  but  little  distressed,  considering  the  great  time  and  the  heat 
of  the  day. 

The  betting  was  changed  about  immediately,  not  less  from 
the  result  of  the  previous  heat,  than  from  the  great  apparent 
exertion  that  Lexington  had  made  while  running,  and  the 
aspect  and  condition  of  the  horses  after  the  heat.  Reube's 
chance  was  considered  hopeless,  with  two  such  competitors 
against  him.  Most  of  the  bets  now  made  were  for  the  purpose 
of  hedging,  and  Lecomte  was  the  favorite  at  100  to  40  against 
the  field. 

Each  horse  came  up  for  the  second  heat  with  crest  erect, 
and  with  a  defiant  demeanor  cast  proud  glances  from  fierce 
eyes,  determined  apparently  to  win  or  die.  Lexington,  this 
time,  led  the  way  from  the  score,  for  nearly  two  miles,  by  about 
two  lengths  ;  when  on  coming  down  the  stretch  and  passing  the 
stands  to  enter  on  the  third  mile,  Lecomte,  who  had  been  bottled 
up,  commenced  his  great  brush,  overhauled  Lexington,  and 
passed  him.  Both  now  did  their  best,  and  the  third  mile  was 
a  constant  strife  throughout,  for  the  lead,  and  the  quickest  in 
the  race,  being  run  in  1 :  46 ;  but  Lecomte,  although  so  hard 
pushed,  never  w^avered,  but  ran  evenly  and  steadily  along  about 
two  lengths  ahead.  On  the  first  turn  of  the  fourth  mile,  Lex- 
ington, who  at  that  point  was  nearly  up  to  his  rival,  for  a 
moment  gave  back  and  lost  his  stride,  but  he  at  once  recovered 
it,  and  pushed  on  with  vigor,  but  with  evidently  great  effort. 
All  was  of  no  use,  for  Lecomte  came  home  a  whinner  by  four 
lengths,  in  the  astonishing  time  of  7  :  88f ,  distancing  Reube. 

The  long  pent-up  feelings  of  tlie  nearly  frenzied  thousands, 
who  for  some  time  Lad  been  almost  breathless,  now  found  vent, 
and  all,  losers  as  well  as  winners,  ladies  as  well  as  gentlemen, 
shouted  and  applauded  the  magnificent  contest,  the  glorious 
result,  and  the  gallant  winner.     We  yesterday  wrote  and  pub- 


318  THE   H0K8E. 

lislied  concerning  this  race,  "  We  look  to-daj  for  a  race,  which 
for  time  and  a  close  contest,  can  be  matched  against  any  ever 
run."  That  prediction  has  been  more  than  fulfilled,  the  race 
not  only  matching,  but  far  exceeding  any  of  the  fleetest  of  them 
in  regard  to  time. 

For  more  than  twenty  years,  the  race  of  Ecli])se  and  Henry, 
over  the  Union  Course,  Long  Island,  on  the  27th  of  May,  1823, 
was  the  quickest  on  record.  The  shortest  heat  in  that  race  was 
7  :  37^.  In  Fashion's  race  with  Boston,  over  the  Union  Course, 
Long  Island,  May  10, 1842,  the  time  was  7 :  32| — 7  :  45.  George 
Martin's  fast  race  was  run  in  this  city,  on  the  29th  of  March, 
1843,  and  the  time  was  7  :  33 — 7  :  43.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact, 
as  Lecomte  is  by  Boston  out  of  Keel,  that  his  sire  should  have 
run  in  the  quickest  race  of  Fashion,  and  his  dam  Keel  should, 
on  December  11,  1841,  have  won  a  race  in  this  city,  the  time 
of  which  was  7  :  40—7  :  43. 

The  subject  is  so  fruitful  of  speculations  in  regard  to  time 
and  blood,  that  we  must  rein  in  our  pen  to  suit  our  space,  well 
satisfied  that  we  have  witnessed  the  best  race,  in  all  respects, 
that  was  ever  run,  and  that  Lecomte  stands  j^roudly  before 
the  world,  as  the  best  race-horse  ever  produced  on  the  Turf. 

SUMjSIAEY. 

Saturday,  April  8 — Jockey  Club  Purse,  $2,000,  for  all  ages,  weights  as  above.  Four-mile  heats. 
T.  J.  "Wells'  ch.  c.  Lecomte,  by  Boston,  out  of  Reel  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  8  yrs.— carried  31 

pounds  overweight — Abe 11 

A.  L.  Bingaman's  b.  c.  Lexington,  by  Boston,  out  of  Alice  Carneal  by  Imp.  Sarpedon, 

4  yrs. — Heniy  Meichon 2    2 

Judge  Hunter's  ch.  g.  Jieube,  by  Imp.  Trustee  out   of  Minstrel  by  Medoc,  aged.— John 

Ford 3  dist 

FiEST  Heat.  Secowd  Heat. 


Time  of  1st  mile,       ....  1.53 

Time  of  2d  mile,  ....  1.54 

Time  of  3d  mile,         ....  1.49i 

Time  of  4th  mile,  ....  1.49J 


Time  of  1st  mile,  ....  2.03 

Time  of  2d  mile,  .        .        .  1.5S 

Time  of  .Sd  mile,  ....  1.46 

Time  of  4th  mile,  .        .        .  1.52J 


Time  of  1st  heat,         .       .        .    T.26     !  Time  of  2d  heat,     .       .        .    7.38* 

New  Orleans  Picayune. 


THE  GKEAT  MATCH  vs.  TIME. 


THE   SECOND   EVENT. 


The  Match  against  Time,  which  came  off  over  the  Metairie 
Course,  New  Orleans,  is  of  such  an  extraordinary  character,  and 
so  astounding  in  its  result,  that  we  devote  to  it  all  the  space 
at  our  command.  That  all  may  be  fully  "  posted  up,"  we  give 
the  original  challenge  from  the  owner  of  Lexington,  and  place 
on  record  the  whole  facts  relating  to  the  match 


CHALLENGE   FROM   LEXINGTON. 

We  have  great  pleasure  in  giving  to  the  sporting  world  the 
subjoined  note  from  the  owner  of  Lexington. 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  "  Spmrr  of  the  Times." — Although  the 
mistake  made  by  the  rider  of  Lexington,  in  pulling  up  at  the 
end  of  three  miles,  in  the  recent  fast  four-mile  race  at  New 
Orleans,  was  witnessed  by  thousands  of  persons,  I  believe  it  has 
not  been  referred  to  in  print,  except  in  the  last  number  of  your 
paper.  As  Lexington  will  probably  follow  the  fashion  in  making 
a  foreign  tour,  I  propose  the  following  as  his  valedictory.  I  will 
run  him  a  single  four  miles  over  the  Metairie  Course,  at  New 
Orleans,  under  the  rules  of  the  Club,  against  the  fastest  time  at 
four  miles  that  has  been  run  in  America,  for  the  sum  of  ten 
thousand  dollars — one  fourth  forfeit.     Two  trials  to  be  allowed, 


320  THE   HORSE. 

and  the  race  to  be  run  between  the  1st  and  15th  of  April  next. 
Arrow  to  be  substituted  if  Lexington  is  amiss. 

Or,  I  will  run  Lexington  over  the  same  course,  four-mile 
heats,  on  the  Thursday  previous  to  the  next  Metairie  April 
meeting,  against  any  named  horse,  at  the  rate  expressed  in  the 
proj)Osition  subjoined. 

Or,  I  will  run  him  over  the  Union  Course,  at  New  York,  the 
same  distance,  on  the  third  Tuesday  in  October.  Tlie  party 
accepting  the  last  race  to  receive  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
to  twenty  thousand  dollars,  or  to  bet  the  same  odds  if  Lexington 
travels  to  run  at  ISTew  Orleans.  The  forfeit  to  be  five  thousand 
dollars,  and  to  be  deposited  with  Messrs.  Coleman  &  Stetson, 
of  the  Astor  House,  when  either  race  is  accepted.  If  the  amounts 
of  the  last  propositions  are  too  large,  they  may  be  reduced  one- 
half,  with  forfeit  in  the  same  proportion.  The  first  acceptance 
coming  to  hand  will  be  valid — subsequent  ones  declined  ;  and 
none  received  after  the  commencement  of  the  races  at  the 
National  Course,  New  York,  the  26th  of  next  month. 

K.  Ten  Beoeck. 
New  TorJc,  May  30,  1854. 

The  match  vs.  time,  offered  above,  was  accepted,  and  notifi- 
cation made  in  the  "  Spirit  of  the  Times,"  of  the  17th  June,  as 
annexed. 

Lexington's  challenge  against  time  accepted. 

We  had  the  pleasure  to  publish  exclusively,  in  this  journal 
of  the  3d  of  June,  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  and  interesting 
challenges — or,  rather,  series  of  challenges — ever  made  in  the 
United  States,  one  of  which  has  been  accepted.  The  challenge 
referred  to  was  as  above. 

The  forfeit  has  been  deposited  with  our  friends  Messrs.  Cole- 
man &  Stetson,  of  the  Astor  House,  in  this  city.  The  gentlemen 
acceptors  of  the  challenge  are  Col.  Calvin  Green  and  Capt.  John 
Belcher,  of  Virginia,  two  gentlemen  well  known  in  sporting 
circles.  No  match  against  time,  of  such  interest,  has  ever 
occurred  in  this  country.  Time  is  "  a  mighty  good  horse "  to 
bet  on,  but  we  "  have  our  doubts  !  " 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  challenge  from  the  owner  of  Lexing- 


SPECULATION    ON    THE   MATCH.  321 

ton,  quoted  above,  that  this  journal  was  the  f/rst  to  allude  to  the 
fact  that  Lexington  was  pulled  up  at  the  finish  of  his  third  mile 
in  the  second  heat  of  his  second  race  with  Lecomte.  Whether 
Lexington  could  have  beaten  Lecomte  in  that  race  is  another 
matter.  "  Doctors  differ ! "  It  was  our  expressed  opinion  that 
if  Lexington  had  been  ridden  in  the  second  heat  by  the  jockey 
engaged  for  him,  the  result  might  possibly  have  been  different. 
For  the  expression  of  this  opinion,  we  have  been  most  grossly 
abused  by  three  correspondents  of  the  Kew  Orleans  press  ever 
since.  Much  good  may  it  do  them.  We  "  let  them  up  light." 
Lecomte,  a  son  of  Boston  and  Keel,  could  naturally  be  "  nothing 
but  a  good  'un."  We  never  had  a  doubt  of  his  immense  turn 
of  speed,  or  of  his  thorough  game.  His  sire  was  the  best  race- 
horse, barring  an  infirmity  of  temper,  and  his  dam  second  to 
none,  save  Fashion,  that  ever  gloriously  illustrated  the  fact  that 
"  BLOOD  WILL  TELL !  "  Their  performances  and  triumphs  will 
live  in  the  annals  of  the  turf,  as  of  those  "  high-mettled  racers," 
Flying  Childers  and  English  Eclipse,  to  which,  in  our  humble 
judgment,  they  were  not  inferior. 

Before  entering  into  the  reports  and  details  of  the  match, 
we  have  thought  it  would  not  be  uninteresting  to  our  readers  to 
have  the  speculations  of  two  New  Orleans  daily  papers — sup- 
posed to  be  well  advised — on  the  morning  before  the  race. 

We  quote  from  the  "Picayune,"  of  the  1st  instant. 

The  most  remarkable  racing  event  of  modern  times,  and 
indeed  of  all  time,  will  come  oft'  to-morrow  over  the  Metairie 
Course,  should  the  weather  prove  favorable  up  to  the  time  of 
starting,  which  is  announced  for  half  past  three  o'clock,  p.  m. 

Lexington,  a  son  of  the  world-renowned  Boston,  is  matched 
to  perform  a  feat  which  he  has  never  yet  performed,  which 
Lecomte  accomplished  under  perhaps  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances of  good  order  of  the  course,  fine  weather,  balmy 
atmosphere,  and  his  excellent  condition. 

We  learn  that  a  gentleman  representing  the  Yirginia  party 
arrived  in  this  city  a  few  days  ago,  invested  with  plenary 
powers.  The  judges  and  timers  have  been  appointed,  and  a 
better  selection  could  not  have  been  made  than  in  his  Excellency 
Gov.  P.  O.  Hebert,  Gen.  S.  W.  Westmore,  and  John  G.  Cocks, 
Esq.,  the  President  of  the  Club,  as  judges,  and  Hon.  D.  F. 
Vol.  L— 21 


322  THE    HORSE. 

Kenner,  Ciq^t.  W.  J.  Minor,  and  Stephen  D.  Elliott,  as 
timers. 

It  is  agreed  between  the  parties,  that  Lexington  may  be 
accompanied  in  his  trial  by  a  horse  or  horses,  and  rhat  any 
changes  of  horses  may  be  made  that  circnmstances  render 
necessary.  This  will,  of  course,  increase  the  interest  of  the 
scene,  and  give  it  the  appearance  of  a  regular  contest. 

Although  the  time,  at  four  miles,  made  by  Lecomte  in  his 
contest  with  Lexington,  is  the  point  which  the  latter  has  to 
reach  upon  the  present  occasion — namely,  7 :  26 — it  may  not 
be  out  of  place  to  note  the  best  time  made  by  other  horses  of 
renown  in  the  day  of  their  supremacy  upon  the  turf.  Of  these 
may  be  named  Henry,  7  :  37  ;  Grey  Medoc  and  Altorf,  dead 
heat,  7  :  35  ;  Boston,  the  fastest  heat  he  ever  ran  and  won,  7  :  40 ; 
Fashion,  7 :  32| ;  Miss  Foot,  second  heat,  7  :  35  ;  George  Mar- 
tin, with  Keel,  the  dam  of  Lecomte,  in  which  heat  she  broke 
down,  7  :  33  ;  Free  Trade,  7  :  33.  Keube,  the  winner  of  many 
races,  and  an  aged  horse,  did  that  which  has  not  yet  been  sur- 
passed ;  he  ran  and  won  a  heat,  with  all  his  proper  weight,  at 
his  ease,  in  7  :  40  !  We  could  name  many  others  in  this  con- 
nection, but  these  will  suffice.  We  incline  to  the  opinion  that 
time  alone  is  but  at  best  a  fallacious  test  of  the  superiority  of  a 
race-horse,  unless,  as  in  this  instance,  it  beats  the  best  ever 
made. 

It  would  have  been  no  easy  matter,  during  the  lifetime  of 
Col.  Wm.  R.  Johnson,  the  well-named  "  Napoleon  of  the  Turf," 
to  convince  him  that  his  favorite  mare,  Eeality,  the  grandam 
of  the  renowned  Fashion,  could  not  have  beaten  all  the  horses 
that  appeared  upon  the  American  Turf  in  his  day  ;  and  yet  in 
her  palmy  days  no  remarkable  time  was  recorded.  Her  only 
record  is  superiority  over  those  of  her  day. 

There  are  so  many  contingent  circumstances,  which  may  be 
connected  with  the  success  of  this  unexampled  exploit,  any  one 
of  which  might  turn  to  tide  against  the  horse,  that  it  will  require 
more  than  an  ordinary  degree  of  judgment,  and  we  might  almost 
say  foresight,  to  take  advantage  of  them  at  the  moment.  "Time 
waits  for  no  man,"  nor  horse.  The  all-important  aid  of  brilliant 
sky,  balmy  southern  breeze,  elastic,  smooth  course,  and  the 
unexceptionable  condition  of  the  horse,  must  all  be  brought  to 


TITE   MATCH.  323 

bear  in  his  behalf,  to  insure  success.  That  all  these  attributes 
may  operate  favorably,  is  our  fervent  wish. 

The  temerity  of  Lexington's  owner  in  sending  this  challenge 
to  the  world,  in  the  face  of  a  recent  defeat,  when  the  unparal- 
leled time  of  T :  26  was  made,  forms  an  event  in  the  annals  of 
the  American  Turf,  which  time  cannot  obliterate. 

Should  success  attend  the  effort,  he  will  have  the  proud 
satisfaction  of  possessing  the  champion  of  America. 

The  annexed  paragraphs  are  from  the  "  Daily  Crescent,"  of 
the  same  morning. 

THE   GREAT   MATCH    AGAINST   TIME. 

The  day  has  at  last  arrived,  and  also  the  horse,  when  a  wager 
not  equalled  in  audacity,  and  an  effort  never  before  attempted, 
in  this  country  or  any  other,  will  come  off.  Lexington,  the 
renowned  hero  of  the  Great  Post  Stake  Eace,  is  to  try  and  sur- 
pass the  unequalled  time  made  by  Lecomte  a  few  days  after — 
to  mark,  on  the  racing  calendar,  iigures  below  7  :  26.  The  con- 
fidence of  Mr.  Ten  Broeck  in  his  horse  must  certainly  be  very 
considerable,  to  induce  him  to  put  up  $10,000  on  accomplishing 
what  no  other  horse  has  ever  accomplished,  and  surpassing  the 
best  time  the  turf  has  ever  known.  He  is  experienced,  howevei-, 
as  a  turfman,  and  as  apt  as  any  other  to  form  a  correct  judg- 
ment. Many  of  the  most  knowing  turfmen  have  come  round 
to  his  opinion  and  endorsed  his  expectations,  "  A  Young  Turf- 
man"— well  known  in  the  columns  of  the  "  Spirit  of  the  Times," 
"and  in  the  racing  fraternity  of  this  city — says  in  the  last  number 
of  the  "  Spirit,"  that  "  to  enable  Lexington  to  win,  there  must 
be  a  number  of  concurring  favorable  circumstances  ;  his  condi- 
tion must  be  perfect,  he  must  be  ridden  with  the  greatest  skill, 
track  and  day  must  be  most  favorable."  We  believe  Lexington 
will  win  his  match  against  time,  and  still  we  don't  think  he  will 
beat  Lecomte. 

ISTotwithstanding  the  high  authorities  in  favor  of  the  horse's 
winning — to  which  may  be  added  the  able  writer  on  racing 
matters  in  the  "  Picayune" — we  diff ':  from  them  all,  and  hold 
it  improbable  that  the  best  time  ever  made  is  to  be  beaten. 


324  THK   IIORSK. 

except  Tinder  very  extraordinary  circnrastanees.  That  which 
has  been  done  may  be  done  again,  bnt  it  is  not  equally  clear 
that  the  best  that  has  ever  been  done  may  be  excelled.  It  will 
take  an  extraordinary  animal  to  come  up  to  Y  :  26,  and  a  little 
more  extraordinary  one  to  cut  under  it.  The  day  has,  however, 
arrived,  and  all  doubts  of  opinion  will  be  settled  ere  sunset. 
"We  assuredly  hope  that  Lexington  will  be  successful,  and  earn 
new  honors  for  Boston  and  Metairie.  Hegira's  1  :  42^,  Berry's 
3  :  36^,  Little  Flea's  5  :  331,  and  Lecomte's  7  :  26,  all  done  in 
New  Orleans,  beat  the  world.  We  can  only  run  against  our 
own  time  now. 

We  understand  that  the  track  is  in  excellent  order  and  the 
horse  in  fine  condition.  The  day  promises  to  be  propitious,  and 
the  attendance  is  sure  to  be  large.  The  champion  will  have  a 
fi-esh  nag  started  out  on  each  mile  to  keep  up  his  ambition, 
which  will  increase  the  interest  of  the  sport.  We  will  record 
the  result  to-morrow  mornino'. 


THE   RACE   nSELF. 
I'rom  the  JVeio  Orleans  "  Picayu7ie,"  of  April  8. 

The  most  brilliant  event  in  the  sporting  annals  of  the  Amer- 
ican Turf,  giving,  as  it  has,  the  palm  to  the  renowned  Lexington, 
came  off  yesterday  over  the  Metairie  Course,  and  its  result 
greatly  surpassed  the  most  ardent  liopes  and  enthusiastic  ex- 
pectations of  the  friends  of  the  winner,  and  the  lovers  of  the  turf 
sports. 

Tlie  day  was  the  loveliest  of  the  whole  season.  As  the  hour 
appointed  for  the  great  contest  approached,  the  town  was  all 
astir  with  the  excitement  incident  to  the  occasion.  Vehicles  of 
all  sorts  were  in  requisition,  and  our  beautiful  level  Shell  Roads 
were  filled  with  them  from  the  last  paving-stone  to  the  gates  of 
the  course.  The  displays  in  equitation  during  that  busy  part 
of  the  day,  which  may  be  defined  as  "  going  to  the  races,"  were 
almost  as  amusing  and  exciting  as  the  greater  event,  for  wit- 
nessing which  so  many  thousands  were  intent. 

The  judges  selected  for  the  occasion  were  Gen.  Stephen  M. 
Westmore,  upon  the  part  of  the  Virginia  gentlemen ;  Arnold 


AGAINST   TrvrE. 


Harris,  Esq.,  for  Mr.  Ten  Broeck,  and  John  G-.  Cocks,  Esq.,  the 
President  of  the  Metairie  Jockey  Club,  as  umpire. 

The  timers  were  the  Hon.  Duncan  F.  Kenner,  Capt.  Wm.  J. 
Minor,  and  Stephen  D.  Elliott,  Esq. 

It  being  the  first  event  of  the  season,  there  was  the  usual 
bustle  at  the  gates,  the  distribution  of  the  members'  badges  and 
the  strangers'  badges,  the  admissions  to  the  different  stands, 
and,  from  the  character  of  the  event,  an  unusual  rush  of  car- 
riages, cabs,  buggies,  wagons,  saddle-horses,  and  foot-passengers ; 
and  by  three  o'clock  the  course  presented  a  most  brilliant  ap- 
pearance. There  were  representatives  of  every  section  of  the 
country,  and  almost  every  State  in  the  Union,  and  among  them 
we  were  happy  to  see  a  goodly  show  of  the  fairer  portion  of 
creation. 

The  field  inside  the  course  presented  a  most  animated  appear- 
ance, and  the  feeling  in  favor  of  the  gallant  Lexington  was 
general  and  decided ;  and,  as  the  predestined  hero  of  the  day 
appeared  upon  the  course — in  company  with  his  stable  com- 
panions, who  were  to  be  partners  for  a  time  in  his  toils,  his 
feelings,  and  his  fame — his  bold,  reaching,  and  elastic  step,  his 
unequalled  condition,  and  his  fearless,  defiant  look — conscious 
of  superiority  and  of  victory — gave  strength  to  his  backers  tliat 
all  was  as  it  should  be. 

Of  the  temerity  of  his  backer  and  owner,  Mr.  Eichard  Ten 
Broeck,  in  standing  before  the  world  bidding  defiance  to  all  the 
previous  performances  ever  marked  by  horse,  we  have  before 
spoken  as  our  feelings  dictated,  and  his  extraordinary  self-reli- 
ance, based  upon  well  directed  judgment  and  sound  sense,  can- 
not fail  to  place  him  in  the  estimation  of  true  sportsmen  as  the 
leader  of  the  host.  He  knew  he  had  an  animal  of  unflinching 
game,  coupled  with  lightning  speed,  and  bravely  did  his  gallant 
ally  respond  to  his  call. 

The  betting  was  large.  Lexington's  appearance  made  him 
a  favorite,  and  before  starting  it  was  firm  at  100  to  T5  against 
Time,  and  but  few  takers.  The  greater  portion  of  the  betting 
had  been  done  in  town,  and  there  were  but  few  left  who  dared 
to  brave  the  lion  in  his  lair. 

The  conflicting  opinions  which  had  been  generally  expressed 
in  regard  to  the  terms  of  the  match,  and  of  its  mode  of  perform- 


326  TiTR  horst:. 

ance,  caused  a  very  general  excitement,  each  party  in  turn 
expressing  his  views  as  to  the  right  of  the  points  discussed  ; 
namely,  that  of  allowing  horses  to  start  with  Lexington,  to  urge 
hi  in  to  an  increased  speed,  and  the  propriety  of  giving  the  horse 
a  running  start. 

The  judges,  however,  ended  the  matter  by  deciding  that  he 
could  do  both. 

The  decision  gave  very  general  satisfaction. 

Gil  Patrick,  upon  Lexington,  now  prepared  for  action,  and 
as  he  started  up  the  stretch  upon  his  proud  courser,  to  do  that 
which  no  other  horse  had  ever  attempted,  the  man  and  horse 
formed  a  beautiful  and  perfect  picture.  He  turned  him  around 
just  below  the  drawgates,  and  as  he  reached  the  judges'  stand, 
when  the  drum  tapped,  he  m^  as  at  the  pace  which  it  was  intended 
he  should  run.  To  our  mind,  he  was  run  too  fast  the  first  mile, 
which  he  accomplished  in  1  :  47^ — the  first  half  mile  in  fifty- 
three  seconds.  Upon  reaching  the  stand,  it  M^as  intimated  to 
him  to  go  slower,  which  he  did. 

Joe  Blackburn  was  started  behind  him  at  the  beginning  of 
the  first  mile,  but  the  respectful  distance  he  kept  in  his  rear 
must  certainly  have  done  him  an  injury  rather  than  a  benefit, 
for  at  no  time  was  he  near  enough  for  Lexington  to  hear  the 
sound  of  his  hoofs. 

The  pace  in  the  second  mile  visibly  decreased ;  Arrow,  who 
was  started  before  its  commencement,  waiting  about  thirty 
yards  behind  Lexington.  In  the  third  mile  Arrow  closed  the 
gap,  and  Lexington,  hearing  him,  was  a  little  more  anxious, 
and  slightly  increased  his  pace.  Upon  entering  the  fourth  mile, 
Arrow  was  stopped,  and  Joe  Blackburn  went  at  him  again,  but, 
as  in  the  first  instance,  he  was  "  like  chips  in  porridge,"  of  no 
benefit.  Lexington  darted  off  in  earnest,  running  the  last  mile 
in  1 :  48f .  He  reached  the  head  of  the  front  stretch  in  6  :  55, 
running  its  entire  length  in  24f  seconds.  The  whole  time  of  the 
four  miles  in  7  :  19f ,  carrying  103  pounds — Gil  Patrick  being 
three  pounds  overweight. 

That  the  course  was  in  admirable  condition,  we  need  not 
assert,  but  that  we  have  seen  it  in  better  order  for  safety  and 
for  time,  we  think  we  may  assert.  The  writei-  of  this  was  not 
present  when  Lexington  and  Lecomte  met  last  spring,  and  can 


TIME    BEATEN.  327 

tlierefore  make  no  comparison,  but  agrees  with  "  A  Young 
Turfman,"  that  the  extreme  hardness  of  the  track  might  prevent 
a  horse  from  fully  extending  himself;  which  must  have  been 
the  case  with  Lexington  yesterday.  He  lost  his  left  fore  plate, 
and  half  the  right  one  ;  and  Gil  Patrick,  at  the  drawgates,  the 
last  mile,  had  no  little  difficulty  in  keeping  him  on  his  course, 
Lexington  making  violent  efforts  to  swerve  to  the  right  where 
it  was  soft  and  heavy. 

With  regard  to  the  time,  not  a  doubt  can  be  entertained,  the 
official  being  slower  than  any  other. 

Outside,  by  many  experienced  timers,  it  was  made  in  Y.19J. 

T]ie  excitement  attending  the  progress  of  this  remarkable 
race  cannot  be  described.  It  was  intense  throughout ;  and  to 
those  who  had  no  opportunity  of  taking  note  of  time,  Lexing- 
ton's deceptive,  fox-like  gait  could  not  have  given  them  hopes 
of  success.  The  joyousness  and  hilarity  every  where  visible, 
which  followed  the  announcement  that  Lexington  was  the  vic- 
tor, showed  the  feeling  of  the  majority  of  the  vast  assemblage. 

It  must  be  a  source  of  the  highest  gratification  to  the  rider 
of  Lexington,  that  he  guided  him  through  his  perilous  journey 
Buccessfnlly,  despite  the  prophecies  and  hopes  of  defeat  that 
attended  him.  In  this  connection  we  may  fearlessly  assert,  that 
through  a  long  career  of  usefulness  and  success  of  more  than 
twenty  years  upon  the  turf,  the  name  of  Gilbert  W.  Patrick, 
better  known  as  Gil  Patrick,  the  rider,  has  never  been  tainted 
with  even  the  breath  of  suspicion,  and  that  the  bright  escutcheon 
of  his  name  remains  untarnished  ;  and  as  this  is  perhaps  his  last 
appearance  in  public,  it  is  the  writer's  hearty  wish  that  he  may 
live  to  enjoy  an  uninterrupted  flow  of  worldly  comfort,  and  that 
when  death  calls  him  to  answer  that  to  which  all  living  must 
respond,  he  may  be  full  of  years  and  honor.  The  names  of  Gil 
Patrick  and  Lexington  are  inseparably  connected  with  the 
greatest  achievement  upon  the  American  Turf. 

That  this  great  race  will  go  down  to  generations  yet  unborn, 
as  the  fastest  ever  made,  is  the  honest  conviction  of  the  writer. 
The  following  is  the  record. 

Monday,  April  2, 1855— Match  for  $20,000,  Lexington  to  beat  the  fastest  time  at  four  miles,  being 

7m.  26s. 
B.  Ten  Broeck's  b.  c.  Lexington,  by  Boston  out  of  Alice  Carneal,  by  imported  Sarpedon,  4  years, 

103  pounds— 8  pounds  extra.    Gil  Patrick.    Won. 


328  THE    HOKSK. 

TIME. 

Time  of  1st  mile,    • 1-471 

Time  of  2d  mile, l-52i 

Time  of  3d  mile, 1-5H 

Time  of  4th  mile, l-48i 

Total  time 7.19i 

Thus  ended  the  second  act  of  this  remarkable  drama ;  but 
the  play  itself  was  not  so  to  end  ;  for  the  gallant  champion  whose 
time  had  been  so  defiantly  challenged,  and  so  bravely  beaten, 
came  up  once  more  in  his  proper  person,  to  try  the  fortunes  of 
the  field. 


THE  GKEAT  EACE  AT  NEW  OELEAl^S. 

THE  FASTEST  TIME   ON  RECORD! 
LEXINGTON  VICTORIOUS  I¥  OKE  HEAT— TIME,  7.231  I 

THE     THIRD      EVENT. 

It  was  not  strange  that  this  match  should  command  more  atten- 
tion than  an  ordinary  race.  Tlie  antecedents  of  both  animals 
were  brilliant  beyond  com23arison,  and  the  improvement  which 
each  had  shown  at  every  successive  trial,  led  to  an  almost  wild 
belief  that  some  new  miracle  of  time  would  be  performed  in 
the  impending  meeting.  There  was  much,  too,  in  the  annals  of 
the  Turf  connecting  itself  with  the  present  position  of  these 
horses,  that  was  calculated  to  add  immensely  to  the  interest. 

It  will  be  recollected  that  Time,  which  should  always 
be  progressive,  stood  still  for  twenty  years  on  the  heels  of  the 
renowned  Eclipse,  who  ascended  into  glory — over  Sir  Henry — on 
the  Long  Island  track,  in  a  four-mile  heat,  in  7: 37.  At  length  the 
brilliant  mare  Fashion  sprang  up,  and  exceeded  it,  on  the  same 
course,  by  five  seconds,  gaining  a  double  victory,  by  beating 
the  till  then  unconquerable  Boston  in  a  four-mile  heat  of  T:  32^. 
The  world  was  astonished,  and  so  miraculous  was  this  considered, 
that  a  report  was  current  that  the  judges  were  almost  afraid 
to  proclaim  it;  indeed,  that  the  true  speed  was  7:31^,  and  that 
two  of  the  judges  who  had  so  taken  it,  yielded  to  the  third,  who 
was  the  second  slower,  for  fear  the  public  would  be  dissatisfied 
with  their  decision.  Tliis  time  of  Fashion  held  the  field  for 
about  nine  years,  and  the  lovers  of  the  Turf,  as  they  dolefully 


330  THE    HORSE, 

contemplated  her  decline,  feared  they  would  never  look  npon  her 
like  again.  But  there  is  a  term  for  all  worldly  glory,  and  it  was 
destined  that  last  Spring  the  wondrous  Lexington  and  tlie  phe- 
nomenon Lecomte  should  both  shoot  forth  together  to  outdazzle 
all  previous  lustre,  and  to  turn  the  possibility  of  racing  speed 
into  a  bewildering  maze  of  doubt.  These  rivals,  not  knowing 
each  other,  and  themselves  unknown,  first  came  together  on  the 
Metairie  Course,  New  Orleans,  for  the  State  Post-Stake  of  the  last 
Spring  meeting,  and  there,  as  all  the  world  already  knows,  Lex- 
ington was  the  winner,  although  not,  as  yet,  inside  of  Fashion's 
time.  In  the  following  week,  however,  the  ambitious  rivals 
met  again ;  and  it  was  on  that  occasion  the  superb  Lecomte 
reversed  his  late  defeat,  and  at  one  astounding  stroke  reduced 
Fashion's  time  to  7.26  !  Five  seconds  and  a  half  of  glory  at  a 
single  bound  ! 

It  might  have  been  supposed  that  a  defeat  like  this  would 
have  quite  satisfied  the  owner  of  Lexington  that  he  had  con- 
tended against  impossibility,  or  lightning ;  but  what  was  the 
surprise  of  the  whole  racing  world  to  hear,  in  the  midst  of  the 
roar  of  this  exploit,  Mr.  Ten  Broeck  ofi'er  to  wager  $10,000  that 
his  horse  Lexington,  whicli  had  just  been  beaten,  could  beat 
Lecomte's  late  time  ;  and  $2,500  more  that  he  could  afterwards 
beat  Lecomte  himself.  Both  offers  were,  of  course,  accepted, 
and  the  2d  of  April  w^as  selected  for  the  first  trial,  and  the  14th 
of  the  same  month  for  the  other.  Your  readers  know  already, 
by  the  previous  mail,  the  result  of  the  effort  of  the  second ; 
and  that  Lexington,  on  that  occasion,  beat  all  the  annals  and 
exceeded  every  expectation,  by  performing  his  four  miles  in  the 
unheard-of,  I  may  add  undreamt-of^  time  of  7.1 9| — thus  strik- 
ing Lecomte  a  heavier  blow  than  Lecomte  had  administered 
to  Fashion,  and  going  inside  of  his  time  six  seconds  and  a  quar- 
ter !  This  was  the  state  of  things  I  found  at  New  Orleans  at 
half-past  9  p.  m.,  on  the  13th  of  April,  by  the  glass  clock  ;  and 
now  that  I  have  explained  myself  so  fully,  I  think  you  will 
have  no  more  surprise  left  than  I  had,  when  I  took  my  light  to 
go  up  stairs,  that  the  Crescent  City  was,  on  that  occasion,  in 
something  of  a  buzz. 

In  the  morning  I  found  the  excitement  in  no  way  decreased ; 
every  body  was  inquiring  about  the  starting  of  the  trains,  or 


THE   LAST   EVENT.  331 

making  arrangements  with  hackmen  to  take  them  to  the  course  ; 
while  practised  parties  of  hon  vivants  were  displaying  a  world 
of  intelligence  or  instinct  in  packing  champagne  baskets  with 
layers  of  ham,  chicken,  brandy,  beer,  Boker's  bitters,  segars, 
and  soda-water,  to  regale  themselves  with  during  the  dry  stages 
of  the  afternoon.  The  race  was  set  for  three  o'clock,  and  the 
course  being  three  miles  off,  at  one  the  town  began  to  move 
toward  the  track  ;  at  two  it  was  pretty  nearly  deserted,  and  at 
three  it  was  as  silent  and  abandoned  as  at  midnight.  All  the 
roads  leading  to  the  track  streamed  with  pedestrians  and  vehicles, 
and  the  line  condensed  toward  the  gateway  into  a  choked  col- 
umn that  could  move  onward  and  in,  only  by  the  most  tedious 
series  of  instalments. 

On  reaching  the  inside,  the  arena  presented  a  most  brilliant 
spectacle,  and  I  do  not  remember  having  seen  so  many  people 
together  for  a  race,  except  at  the  celebrated  meeting  of  Fashion 
and  Peytona,  on  the  Union  Course,  L.  I.  The  two  long  public 
stands  were  densely  crowded,  the  field  was  filled  with  vehicles 
and  saddle  horses,  and  even  the  trees  that  from  a  distance  over- 
looked the  track,  drooped  heavily  with  the  weight  of  human 
fruit.  The  track  itself,  however,  under  better  government  than 
those  of  ISTew  York,  was  kept  clear  of  all  intruders,  except  in 
that  portion  known  as  the  home  stretch ;  to  which  exclusive 
section  the  members  of  the  club,  and  such  privileged  strangers 
as  had  provided  themselves  with  ten-dollar  badges,  were  ad- 
mitted. 

THE     RACE. 

At  length  the  bugle  sounded  the  signal  for  the  horses  to  be 
stripped.  Upon  this  every  body  pressed  forward  to  secure  eli- 
gible places ;  every  neck  was  stretched  to  its  utmost  length. 
Even  the  gamblers  in  the  alleys  underneath  the  public  stands 
undoubled  their  legs  from  beneath  their  faro  tables,  locked  up 
their  double  card-boxes,  stopped  the  snap  of  their  roulettes,  and 
slipped  the  little  ivory  ball  in  their  vest  pockets  to  run  up  stairs 
and  become  innocent  lookers-on. 

TVagers  on  the  contestants  had  a  small  revival,  in  consequence 
of  this  eruption  from  the  betting  quarter,  and  the  odds  on  Lex- 
ington went  up  again  to  the  mark  of  $100  to  $80.     It  was  very 


332  THE    HORSE. 

freely  taken,  however,  by  the  gentlemen  from  Red  Eiver,  where 
Lecomte  was  raised;  and  with  many  of  them  confidence  in 
their  favorite  stood  so  high  that  they  put  out  all  the  money  they 
had  brought  to  town  on  equal  terms.  They  reasoned,  that  if 
Lexington  could  perform  a  fom--mile  heat  in  7.19f ,  there  was  no 
reason  why  Lecomte  could  not  also  do  it,  if  required  ;  for  the 
contest  now  stood  equal  between  them,  and  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  in  Lecomte's  victory  in  7.26  he  had  trailed  Lexing- 
ton, and  then  turned  out  and  passed  ahead  of  him.  It  was, 
moreover,  said,  on  their  side,  that  the  7.19f  was  not  as  good  as 
the  7.26  of  Lecomte,  for  that  by  running  alone  and  choosing 
the  close  side  of  the  track,  Lexington  saved  nearly  two  sec- 
onds of  distance  in  each  mile,  and  likewise  had  the  advantage 
of  a  long  start,  and  of  receiving  the  word  "  go  "  at  full  speed, 
instead  of  beginning  "from  the  jump,"  as  in  match  fashion. 
Hope  told  a  flattering  tale. 

On  the  strength  of  these  calculations  there  was  considerable 
betting  on  time,  but  with  none  did  I  hear  it  set  at  less  than  7.26 ; 
while  many  believed — though  I  heard  no  bet  to  that  effect — that 
the  heat  would  be  achieved  as  low  down  as  7.15  or  16.  I  do 
not  know  that  any  thing  can  furnish  a  better  idea  of  the  revolu- 
tion made  in  racing  time  by  Lecomte  ,and  Lexington  than  this 
state  of  expectation  shows.  What  would  liave  been  thought, 
two  years  ago,  of  the  declaration,  that  in  a  little  while  we 
should  see  a  four-mile  race,  in  which  the  highest  mark  on  time 
would  be  7.26  ? 

Tliere  is  something  iu  this  matter  of  increase  of  speed  that 
is  worthy  of  reflection  and  philosophy.  We  find  continual  ad- 
vancement, and  what  is  most  remarkable,  exploit  begets  exploit, 
as  if  knowledge  and  emulation  touched  new  powers  which  had 
never  been  electrified  before.  Whence  does  the  spark  proceed 
that  awakes  these  energies,  but  from  the  mind  of  man,  impart- 
ing itself  by  some  strange  process  to  the  mind  and  body  of  his 
horse  as  he  does  to  the  corporeal  faculties  in  possession  of  him- 
self* Trotting  time  stood  for  years  at  2.32,  then  2.30,  and  then 
2.28,  At  length  Beppo  and  Lady  Suffolk  made  a  dead  heat 
under  saddle  on  the  Beacon  Course  in  2.26,  straightway  2.26  was 
repeated  by  several  other  horses ;  by-and-by  it  was  reduced 
still  lower,  and   at   length  2.28  was  banished  to  mile  heats  in 


MOUNTING    FOR    THE    RACE.  833 

wagons.  So  with  the  racers  I  have  named,  and  so  with  Lecomte 
and  Lexington.  One  half  of  a  horse's  speed  is  found  in  the 
brain  of  his  rider  or  driver,  and  that  subtle  essence,  that  know- 
ledge how  to  do,  and  will  to  command  it,  blends  with  the  powers 
of  the  beast  and  makes  all  things  done.  So  with  foot  racers, 
when  they  have  known  that  nine  miles  within  the  hour  could  be 
increased  to  ten,  and  the  ten  to  eleven.  Thej  were  the  same  men, 
without  anv  improvement  in  their  breed ;  the  same  men,  who  had 
once  been  able  barely  to  do  nine.  Shall  we  be  told  that  the  Bon- 
ny Black  Bess  of  the  bold  Turpin  did  not  respond  to  her  master's 
spirit  when  she  took  her  wondrous  bound  over  the  spiked  turn- 
pike gate ! — or  that  a  portion  of  the  soul  of  the  brave  Mame- 
luke, who  alone  escaped  the  massacre  of  the  Beys  by  leaping 
his  horse  over  the  walls  of  Cairo,  did  not  enter  into  that  of  his 
matchless  Barb ! 

"  The  bounding  steed  you  pompously  bestride, 
Shares  with  his  lord  his  pleasure  and  his  pride." 

Assuredly  the  best  portion  of  a  horse's  speed  lies  in  the  mind 
of  his  rider,  and  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  if  Gil.  Patrick 
who  rode  Lexington  into  7.19|,  had — with  his  present  know- 
ledge of  what  is  within  horse-hide — grasped  the  rein  and  pressed 
the  sides  of  Echpse,  he  could  not  have  brought  his  7.37  doM'u 
to  7.26. 

When  the  blankets  were  stripped  from  the  horses,  and  their 
magnificent  combinations  of  blood,  heart,  and  muscle  stood  glis- 
tening and  flickering  in  the  sun,  the  crowd  near  by  could  not  re- 
sist an  involuntary  burst  of  admiration,  at  which  Lecomte  stepped 
coquettishly  about,  showing  his  beautiful  chestnut  coat  and 
branching  muscle,  while  the  darker  Lexington,  with  a  sedate 
and  intelligent  aspect,  looked  calmly  around,  as  if  he  felt  that 
the  sensation  was  quite  what  he  expected  and  deserved.  Both 
animals  were  in  the  finest  possible  condition,  and  the  weather 
and  the  track,  had  they  been  manufactured  to  a  sportsman's 
order,  could  not  have  been  improved.  At  last  the  final  signal 
of  "  bring  up  your  horses,"  sounded  from  the  bugle  ;  and  prompt 
to  the  call,  Gil.  Patrick,  the  well-known  rider  of  Boston,  put  his 
foot  in  Lexington's  stirrup,  and  the  negro  boy  of  Gen.  Wells 
sprang  into  the  saddle  of  Lecomte.     They  advanced  slowly  and 


334  TUE    UORSE. 

daintily  forward  to  the  stand,  and  when  they  halted  at  the  score 
the  immense  concourse,  tliat  had  up  to  this  moment  been  swaying 
to  and  fro,  were  fixed  as  stone.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight  to  see 
these  superb  animals  standing  at  the  score,  tilled  with  unknown 
qualities  of  flight,  and  quietly  awaiting  the  conclusion  of  the 
directions  to  the  riders  for  the  tap  of  the  drum. 

At  length  tlie  tap  of  the  drum  came,  and  instantly  it  struck, 
the  stationary  steeds  leaped  forward  with  a  start  that  sent  every 
body's  heart  into  the  mouth.  "With  bound  on  bound,  as  if  life 
were  staked  on  every  spring,  they  flew  up  the  quarter-stretch, 
Lexington  at  the  turn  drawing  his  nose  a  shadow  in  advance, 
but  when  they  reached  the  half-mile  post — 53  seconds — both 
were  exactly  side  by  side.  On  they  went  at  the  same  flying 
pace,  Lexington,  again  drawing  gradually  forward,  first  his  neck, 
then  his  shoulder,  and  increasing  up  the  straight  side  amidst  a 
wild  roar  of  cheers,  flew  by  the  stand  at  the  end  of  the  first 
mile  three-quarters  of  a  length  in  the  lead.  "  One  hundred  to 
seventy-five  on  Lexington!"     Time,  1.4:91. 

Onward  they  plunge,  onward  without  pause  !  What  makes 
this  throbbing  at  my  heart  ?  What  are  these  brilliant  brutes  to 
me  ?  Why  do  I  lean  forward  and  insensibly  unite  my  voice  with 
the  roar  of  this  mad  multitude  ?  Alas,  I  but  share  the  infatua- 
tion of  the  horses,  and  the  levelling  spii-it  common  to  all  strife  has 
seized  on  all  alike.  "  Where  are  they  now  ?  Ah,  there  they  fly 
round  the  first  turn !  By  heaven,  Lecomte  is  overhauling  him  !  " 
And  so  he  was,  for  on  entering  the  back  stretch  of  the  second 
mile  the  hero  of  7.26  made  his  most  desperate  efi'ort,  reaching 
first  the  girth,  then  the  shoulder,  then  the  neck  of  Lexington,  and 
finally,  when  he  reached  the  half-mile  post,  laid  himself  alongside 
him,  nose  by  nose.  Then  the  mass,  which  during  the  few  seconds 
of  this  special  struggle  had  been  breathless  with  hope  and  fear, 
burst  into  a  shout  that  rang  for  miles,  and  amid  the  din  of 
which  might  be  heard  here  and  there,  "  $100  even  on  Lecomte  !  " 
But  his  equality  was  only  for  a  moment's  term.  Lexington 
threw  his  eye  jealously  askant ;  Gil.  Patrick  relaxed  a  little  of 
his  rein,  which  up  to  this  time  he  had  held  close  in  hand,  and 
without  violence,  or  startling  efl'ect,  the  racer  of  racers  stole 
ahead,  gently,  but  steadily  and  sm-ely,  as  before,  until  he  drew 


THE   MATCH   WON.  335 

himself  a  clear  length  in  the  lead,  in  which  position  they  closed 
the  second  mile.     Time,  1.51. 

Again  the  hurrah  rises  as  thej  pass  the  stand — ^"  One  hun- 
dred to  seventy -five  on  Lexington  !  " — and  swells  in  still  wilder 
volume  when  Lexington  increased  his  one  length  to  three,  from 
the  stand  to  the  turn  of  the  back  stretch.  In  vain  Lecomte  strug- 
gled ;  in  vain  he  called  to  mind  his  former  laurels ;  in  vain  his 
rider  struck  him  with  the  steel ;  his  great  spii-it  was  a  sharper 
spur,  and  when  his  tail  fell,  as  it  did  from  this  time  out,  I  could 
imagine  he  felt  a  sinking  of  the  heart,  as  he  saw  streaming  be- 
fore him  the  waving  flag  of  Lexington,  now  held  straight  out  in 
race-horse  fashion,  and  anon  nervously  flung  up,  as  if  it  were  a 
plume  of  triumph.  "  One  hundred  to  fifty  on  Lexington  !  "  The 
three  lengths  was  increased  to  four,  and  again  the  shout  arose, 
as  in  this  relative  condition  they  went  for  the  third  time  over  the 
score.    Time,  1.51. 

The  last  crisis  of  the  strife  had  now  arrived,  and  Lecomte,  if 
he  had  any  resources  left,  must  call  upon  them  straight.  So 
thought  his  rider,  for  the  steel  went  into  his  sides ;  but  it  was  in 
vain,  he  had  done  his  best ;  while,  as  for  Lexington,  it  seemed 
as  if  he  had  just  begun  to  run.  Gil.  Patrick  now  gave  him 
a  full  rein,  and  for  a  time  as  he  went  down  the  back  stretch,  it 
actually  seemed  as  if  he  were  running  for  the  very  fun  of  the 
thing.  It  was  now  $100  to  $10  on  Lexington,  or  any  kind 
of  odds,  but  there  were  no  takers.  He  had  the  laurel  in 
his  teeth,  and  was  going  for  a  distance.  But  at  this  inglorious 
prospect  Lecomte  desperately  rallied,  and  escaped  the  humilia- 
tion by  drawing  himself  a  few  lengths  within  the  distance  pole, 
while  Lexington  dashed  past  the  stand,  hard  in  hand,  and  actu- 
ally running  away  with  his  rider — making  the  last  mile  in  1.52^, 
and  completing  the  four  in  the  unprecedented  time  of  7.23|-.  I 
say  unprecedented,  because  it  beats  Lecomte's  7.26,  and  is  there- 
fore the  fastest  heat  that  was  ever  made  in  a  match. 

Thus  ended  the  greatest  match  that  has  happened  on  the 
Turf  for  many  years :  nay,  I  might  rather  say,  that  ever  took 
place,  and  putting  to  rest  all  cavil  so  far  as  Lexington's  powers 
are  concerned,  about  the  difference  between  Y.19f  and  7.26.  In 
comparing  the  time,  however,  with  that  recorded  in  favor  o ' 
other  racers,  it  should  be  stated  that  the  track  at  E'ew  Orleans, 


336  THE   HOESE. 

is  what  is  called  a  "  fast  track,"  of  a  springy  and  elastic  nature, 
whicli  is  very  favorable  to  tlie  stroke  of  a  running  horse,  and  of 
course  conducive  to  speed.  The  Union  track  at  Long  Island  is 
not  so  favorable  in  its  character,  and  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
by  those  who  wish  to  be  particular  in  these  matters,  that  Lex- 
ington and  Lecomte,  both  being  colts,  denominated  under  the 
term  of  "  four-year-olds,"  have  neither  of  them,  as  yet,  carried 
full  weight.  In  closing,  it  is  also  proper  for  me  to  state  that 
Lexington  carried  3f  pounds  more  of  weight  in  his  rider  than 
Lecomte,  a  circumstance  which  is  the  more  worthy  of  mention, 
as  he  is  160  pounds  the  smaller  horse. 

My  account  of  the  race  is  now  concluded ;  for  on  the  time 
arriving  for  the  second  heat,  the  owner  of  Lecomte  withdrew 
his  horse,  and  the  purse  and  the  laurels  were  awarded  to  the 
"  Hunter  of  Kentucky." 

A  full  description  of  Lexington  will  be  found  above,  on 
page  305. 

I  will  add,  that  no  one  who  saw  Lexington  walk  quietly 
through  the  cheering  crowd  that  flocked  around  him  at  the  close, 
as  if  his  triumph  were  a  matter  he  fully  understood,  doubts  that 
he  has  sense,  memory,  and  powers  of  reflection — ^horse  sense 
at  least.  And  yet  presumptuous  mortals  will  aver  that  such  an 
animal  has  got  no  soul ! 

In  conclusion,  and  according  to  racing  style,  I  will  now  ap- 
pend the  summary  : — 

Metairie  Course,  N.  O.,  Saturday,  April  24.— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $1,000,  -with  an  inside  stake  of 

$2,500  each.    Four-mile  heats. 
E.  Ten  Brocck's  b.  c.  Lexington,  by  Boston,  out  of  Alice  Carneal  by  Imp.  Sarpedon, 

4  yrs.,  103  lbs [Gil.  Patrick.]       1  1 

T.  J.  Wells'  ch.  c.  Lecomte,  by  Boston,  out  of  Eeel  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  4  yrs.,  100  lbs.         2       dr. 

TIME. 

Time  of  1st  mile,  1-494 

Time  of  2d  mile, 1-51 

Time  of  8d  mile,  1-51 

Time  of  4th  mUe 1.52i 

Total  time, T.23t 

P.  S. — ^Wednesday,  April  18,  1855. — My  theory  is  fortified. 
Inspired  by  Lexington's  exploits,  a  three-year-old  colt,  named 
Henry  Perritt,  in  a  race  of  two-mile  heats,  whicli  took  place 
on  the  above  course  yesterday,  ran  a  single  mile  in  the  extra- 
ordinary time  of  1.42-^,  and  this,  too,  in  the  first  mile  of  the 


PEEFOKaiANCES    OF   HENRY    PEREITT.  337 

second   heat ;  thus   beating  by  several   seconds  the  best  mile 
Lexington  or  any  other  horse  ever  made. 

"  Time  is,  time  was,  and  soon  shall  be  no  more." 

Spirit  of  the  Times,   May  5,  1855. 


The  performances  of  this  horse,  who  was  got  in  1852,  by 
Imp.  Margrave,  out  of  Odd  Stocking,  by  Thornhill,  were  very 
remarkable. 

This  year  was  the  first  of  his  appearance  on  the  turf,  and  in 
his  first  race  of  mile  heats,  he  made  the  best  time,  for  two  con- 
secutive heats,  ever  recorded — 1.46  each,  after  a  first  dash 
of  1.50. 

Five  days  afterward,  in  a  race  of  two  miles  against  Bijou 
and  Gallatina,  after  winning  the  first  heat  in  3.39,  he  ran  the 
first  mile  of  the  second,  in  the  unprecedented  time  of  1.42|-, 
and  the  heat  in  3.40. 

After  this,  he  ran  unfortunately,  and  came  to  an  unfortunate 
and  untimely  end ;  being  beaten  in  the  following  May,  two- 
mile  heats,  in  3.43|,  3.39^,  and  subsequently  thrice  distanced, 
in  two  and  three-mile  heats,  at  no  wonderful  time. 

In  the  autumn  he  won  a  race,  the  best  three  out  of  five,  at 
one-mile  heats,  the  best  heat  in  1.49  ;  and  a  few  days  later, 
September  29,  he  ran  and  won  his  last  race  of  three-mile  heats, 
but  killed  himself  in  winning.  The  race  was  finished  in  a 
snow  storm,  and  was  all  one  cliapter  of  accidents,  the  horses  all 
falling,  shying  and  bolting ;  Perritt  coming  down  twice  heavily, 
and  dying  in  his  stable  the  same  night,  a  gallant  winner  and 
good,  though  I  fancy  somewhat  uncertain,  horse,  in  consequence 
of  cold  and  exertion. 

"What  he  could  have  done  can  never  now  be  known,  for  his 
powers  were  never  fairly  tried,  since  he  was,  in  truth,  but  a 
three-year  old,  though  from  the  Southern  mode  of  reckoning 
from  May-day,  he  was  rated  at  a  year  older.  H.  W.  H. 

Vol.  I.— 22 


PEDIGEEE, 

CHARACTERISTICS,    AND    PERFORMANCES     OF    ARROW. 


Arrow  was  got  in  1850,  by  Boston  out  of  Jeanneton,  by  imp. 
Leviathan,  g.  dam  by  Stockholder,  the  dam  of  Eliza  Bailey, 
who  must,  however,  not  be  confounded  with  Miss  Bailey,  by 
Boaster.  This  Stockholder  mare,  whose  pedigree  was  not  to  be 
ascertained,  when  Jeanneton  stood  in  the  same  stable  with  Pey- 
tona  and  Liatunah  in  ISTew  York,  in  1845,  is  known  to  be  a  mare  of 
very  high  breeding,  with  Oscar  and  Pacolet  blood  in  her  veins. 

Boston.     His  pedigree  in  extenso  is  given  at  page  280. 

Stockholder  was  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  imp.  Citizen,  g.  dam 
imp.  Stirling,  g.  g.  dam  imp.  Mousetrap,  g.  g.  g.  dam  Harris's 
Eclipse,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Old  Janus,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by 
Old  Fearnought,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Apollo,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g. 
g.  g.  dam  by  Moore's  Partner,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Silver- 
Eye,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Jolly  Koger,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g. 
g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  imp.  mare  Mary  Gray. 

Sir  Archy  was  by  Diomed  out  of  Castianira,  both  imported. 
See  Genealogies  2  and  3. 

Citizen,  1T85,  was  by  Pacolet,  dam  Princess — Turk — Fairy 
Queen — Young  Cade — Routte's  Black  Eyes — Crab — "Warlock 
Galloway. 

Stirling,  1Y91,  was  by  Volunteer,  dam  Harriet — Highflyer — 
Young  Cade  mare — Childerkin — Second — Snap's  dam,  &c. 

MousetrajD  is  said  to  have  been  by  Careless,  dam  a  Regulus 
mare — Liberty — Cade,  &c.,  and  to  have  won  several  races  at 
Hull,  England,  in  1777.    He  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Stud  Book. 

Harris's  Eclipse  was  got  by  Fearnought,  dam  imp.  Stella — 


PERFORMANCES    OF    ARROW.  ddy 

Shakspeare — imp.  Cassandra.  There  are  several  Cassandras  in 
the  English  Stud  Book,  but  no  Stella  bj  Shakspeare. 

Janus  by  old  Janus,  son  of  the  Grodolphin  and  the  Little 
Hartley  mare,  dam  by  Fox,  gr.  dam  Bald  Galloway. 

Fearnought,  Rcgulus,  Silvertail,  &c.,  see  above. 

Apollo  was  by  Moreton's  Traveller,  Jolly  Koger,  Monkey. 

Moore's  Partner  was  by  Partner,  sister  to  Starling,  Bay 
Bolton,  son  of  the  Brownlow  Turk,  &c.  &c. 

Jolly  Roger — Roger  of  the  Yale — was  by  Roundhead — Part- 
ner— Woodcock,  &c.  &c. 

Mary  Gray  is  not  in  the  Stud  Book. 


PERFORMANCES    OF   ARROW. 

Arrow  first  appeared  on  the  turf  in  1852,  when  in  the  fall 
meeting  he  took  a  three-year-old  sweepstakes  at  mile  heats, 
beating  two  fillies  by  Boston  and  Belshazzar,  in  1.51| — 1.50. 

In  1853  he  ran  four  times,  winning  thrice,  twice  at  mile 
heats,  and  once  at  three-mile  heats.  He  beat,  the  best  three 
out  of  five,  Caddo  Maid,  4  yrs..  Berry,  4  yrs.,  and  Mecca  5  yrs., 
in  1.55,  1.55,  1.53f,  1.5YA^,  1.57i,  on  the  Metairie  Course,  New 
Orleans,  January  IT. 

On  the  same  course,  April  9,  he  was  beaten  for  the  3  yr.  old 
sweepstakes,  five  subscribers,  at  $500  each,  $500  added  by  the 
Club,  two-mile  heats,  by  Sally  Waters,  to  whom  he  ran  second, 
winning  the  first  heat.     Time  3.40,  3.37^,  3.39. 

A  few  days  later,  on  the  same  course,  April  17,  in  a  purse 
for  all  ages,  mile  heats,  best  three  in  five,  he  beat  Hilariot,  by 
Glencoe,  and  Pickaway,  by  Boston,  winning  three  straight 
heats.     Time,  1.52^,  1.51^,  1.51f. 

On  the  Pharsalia  Course,  Natchez,  Miss.,  ISTov.  24,  he  won  the 
Association  Purse,  $500,  for  all  ages,  three-mile  heats,  beating 
Mary  Taylor,  by  Sovereign — Wade  Hampton,  by  Boston — Hugh 
French,  by  Glencoe,  in  two  straight  heats.     Time,  5.51-|,  5.53-|. 

In  the  following  year,  1854,  he  made  his  debut  in  his  four- 
year-old  shape,  on  the  Metairie  Course,  Friday,  January  6, 
sweepstakes  for  all  ages,  a  single  four  miles,  when  he  beat  Fly- 
ing Flea,  by  Grey  Eagle,  and  White  Eagle,  by  Grey  Eagle. 
Time,  1.50i,  1.49^,  1.54^,  2.04^—7.39. 


340 


THE    HORSE. 


On  the  following  Friday,  January  13,  he  ran  again  for  the 
Jockey  Club  Purse,  for  all  ages.     Three-mile  heats. 


1.  1. 

5.    2. 


2.    4. 
4.    5 


FIRST 

HEAT. 

Time  of  1st  mile, 

1.581- 

2d     "        . 

.    1.5G 

3d     "    .        . 

.       2.01i 

Time  of  first  heat, 

.       5.56 

J.  8.  Hunter's  ch.  f.  Blonde^  by  Glencoe,  out  of  Cherry  Elliot,  by  Wagner,  3  years, 
D.  F.  Kenner'sch.  c.  .4;voM',  by  Boston,  out  of  Jeanneton,  4  years,     . 
T.  B.  Goklsby's  b.  f.  Maid  ofOrleann,  by  Bethune,  out  of  Alice  Carneal,  4  years, 
8.  M.  "Wetniore's  b  g.  Flying  Flea,  by  Grey  Eagle,  5  years,         .... 
W.  J.  Minor's  b.  h.  JencJw,  by  Imp.  Jordan,  out  of  Imp.  Britannia,  5  years, 

BECOND  HEAT. 

Time  of  1st  mile,       ....        1.56 

2d     " 1.56* 

3d     «...        .         1.59J 

Time  of  second  heat,        .        .       .5.52 

At  his  next  appearance,  April  1,  1854,  he  met  Lexington, 
Lecomte,  and  Highlander,  in  the  great  State  Post  Stakes,  of 
four-mile  heats,  which  was  won  by  Lexington,  Lecomte  running 
second,  Highlander  distanced  in  the  second.  Arrow  in  the  first 
heat.  The  ti/ne  was  very  slow — 8.08^,  8.04 — but  the  course  was 
said  to  be  excessively  heavy,  which  it  must  have  been,  to  ac- 
count for  the  distancing,  at  such  a  poor  rate  of  going. 

A  few  days  later,  however,  he  again  beat  his  old  adversary, 
Little  Flea,  in  the  Jockey  Club  Purse,  of  three-mile  heats,  Little 
Flea  taking  the  first  heat.     Time,  5.33i,  5.36,  5.43^. 

In  the  next  year,  1855,  Arrow  was  used  to  put  Lexington  to 
his  speed  in  the  great  match  won  by  that  horse  against  Lecomte's 
time  of  7.26,  and  it  is  worthy  of  recollection  that  Mr.  Ten  Broeck 
had  declared  to  start  Arrow  for  the  match,  in  case  of  Lexington's 
being  amiss.  This  people  did  not,  at  the  time,  well  understand, 
as  he  certainly  had  not  then  exhibited  powers,  which  would 
justify  the  expectation  of  his  beating  that  hitherto  unrivalled 
time.  On  the  10th  April,  however,  of  the  same  year,  he  was  to 
show  of  what  stutf  he  was  made,  in  the  best  race  of  three-mile 
heats  ever  run. 

In  this  race  for  the  Jockey  Club  Purse  for  all  ages,  three- 
mile  heats,  he  was  beaten  by  Brown  Dick,  Hornpipe  distanced 
in  the  second,  and  Mary  Taylor  in  the  first  heat,  but,  as  is  rarely 
the  case,  the  defeated  horse  gained,  not  lost,  laurels  by  his 
defeat.     The  time  has  never  been  equalled. 


riEST     HEAT. 

Time  of  1st  mile,       . 

.       1.50 
.    1.49* 

"           8d     "  .       .        .       . 

1.51* 

Time  of  first  heat, 

5.30} 

SECOND  HEAT. 

Time  of  1st  mile. 


1.50* 
1.48* 
1.49 


Time  of  second  heat. 


AEEOW'S   THREE-MILE   HEATS.  341 

Those  wlio  witnessed  this  race  assert  that  Arrow  was  not,  at 
the  close  of  the  second  heat,  above  half  a  second  behind.  One 
second  would  have  raised  the  time  of  the  heat  of  three  miles  to 
5m.  29s.  It  is  also  asserted  that  no  one,  who  saw  this  horse 
during  the  race  and  after  its  conclusion,  entertained  the  least 
doubt  of  his  ability  to  run  a  fourth  mile  in  Im.  56fs.,  and  it 
would  seem  that  there  can  be  no  reason  to  doubt  it,  since  he  had 
already  run  six  miles,  the  slowest  in  Im.  51f  s.,  and  had  mended 
his  time  in  the  latter  miles.  Had  he  made  it  in  Im.  56|s.,  he 
would,  it  seems,  have  won  the  time  match  by  J  of  a  second,  and 
thus  justified  Mr.  Ten  Broeck's  opinion  ;  but  probably  he  would 
have  won  it  by  much  more  than  that,  as  there  is  no  reason  why 
he  should  fall  off  T|  seconds  in  his  last  mile. 

On  the  same  course  once  more,  however,  after  losing  four- 
mile  heats  to  him  in  T.55| — 7.56f,  he  gained  his  greatest  glory, 
by  defeating  Lecomte  himself  for  the  Jockey  Club  Purse,  of 
three-mile  heats,  Lecomte  taking  the  first  heat  in  6.00,  and 
Arrow  the  second  and  the  third  in  5.59 — 6.03. 

It  is  to  be  presumed,  however,  that  Mr.  Ten  Broeck  holds 
Lecomte  still,  in  spite  of  his  defeat,  the  better  horse,  since  he, 
and  not  Arrow,  is  the  file-leader  of  his  string  on  his  English 
exj)  edition. 

His  race  of  April  9,  1854,  is  thus  narrated  in  the  'New  Or- 
leans Picayune. 

THE   BEST   THREE-MILE    RACE  EVER   RUN. 

Yesterday  being  the  last  day  of  the  Metairie  Jockey  Club 
meeting,  and  a  day  of  recreation  to  many  who  are  usually  en- 
gaged in  business,  there  was  a  very  large  attendance  at  the 
course.  The  fame  of  the  two  horses  that  were  to  contend  for 
the  club  purse  of  $1,000,  at  three-mile  heats,  was  well  known, 
and  a  fast  race  was  confidently  anticipated.  Arrow  having  run 
a  four-mile  dash  in  Y.39,  on  the  6tli  of  January  last,  finishing 
the  last  mile  in  a  gallop,  and  Little  Flea  having,  on  Wednesday 
last,  run  and  saved  her  distance  against  the  fleet  Blonde,  who 
made  the  then  fastest  three-mile  race  on  record,  viz. — 5.36i  and 
5.34,  all  gave  token  that  if  both  of  them  were  "right,"  time 
would  be  literally  used  up. 

The  betting  before  the  start  was  in  favor  of  Aitow,  at  odds 


342  THE    HOESE. 

of  about  a  hundred  to  forty,  at  which  figure  considerable 
amounts  were  staked.  On  starting  for  the  first  heat  Arrow 
took  the  lead,  and  kept  it  for  two  miles  by  about  four  lengths, 
when  Flea  gradually  closed  up  the  gap,  and  on  the  back  stretch 
of  the  third  mile  locked  and  apparently  passed  Arrow  handily. 
Arrow  now  made  a  great  efibrt  to  regain  the  lead,  but  the  pace 
had  been  so  tremendous  from  the  start,  that  he  could  not  do  so  ; 
Little  Flea,  to  the  surprise  of  every  one,  kept  up  his  rapid  run, 
and  won  the  heat  by  a  trifle,  in  the  fastest  time  on  record,  5.33^. 
Arrow  had  in  the  last  few  jumps  of  the  heat  evidently  been 
gaining,  and  as  the  two  passed  the  judges'  stand,  Arrow  was  at 
the  saddle  girth  of  Flea. 

As  Arrow  had  apparently  labored  more  in  the  first  heat  than 
Flea,  and  appeared  more  distressed  by  his  exertions,  and  the 
great  heat  of  the  sun,  the  race  by  some  persons  was  looked 
upon  as  almost  finished.  Flea  becoming  the  favorite  at  odds  of 
100  to  20.  In  the  second  heat  Arrow  again  led  the  way,  open- 
ing a  large  gap,  and  apparently  running  with  more  ease  and 
steadiness  than  in  the  first  heat ;  Arrow  kept  the  lead,  in  spite 
of  every  effort  of  Flea  to  take  it,  although  he  strove  hard  to  do 
so  ;  but  Arrow  won  the  heat  in  the  quick  time  of  5.36,  by  two 
open  lengths. 

Again  the  betting  changed,  and  Arrow  came  into  favor  at 
odds  of  100  to  30.  In  the  third  heat  Arrow  again  led  off, 
soon  opening  a  gap  of  twelve  lengths,  and  never  more  even 
lapped,  winning  the  heat  and  race  handily,  by  eight  clear 
lengths,  in  5.43^. 

The  whole  race  was  a  most  remarkable  one,  the  time  being 
the  best  on  record  at  three-mile  heats.  The  two  first  heats  were 
also  as  exciting  as  ever  witnessed  on  a  race  course  ;  but  we 
must  stop  our  remarks  and  give  the  figures. 

SUMMARY. 

Sunday,  April  9— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $1,000,  for  all  ages,  weights  as  above.  Three-mile  heats. 

D.  F.    Kenner's   ch.  g.   AiTow,  by  Boston,  out  of   Jeannetton  by  imp.  Leviathan,  ' 

5yrs.-Abe- 211 

A.  L.  Bingaman's  b.  g.  Little  Flea,  by  Grey  Eftgle,  dam,  imp.,  by  Acta;on,  5  yrs.— Gil. 

Patrick— 12    2 

IST  Heat.  2d  Heat.  Sd  Heat. 

Time  of  1st  mile,         ....    1.51    ....    1.52i    ....     1.52J 

Time  of  2d  mile 1.51    ....    1.51      ....    1.54* 

Time  of  3d  mile,         1.5U  .       .       .       .    1.52*    ....    1.56* 

Total  time, 5.83*  ....    5.86      ....    5.48* 


NEW    ORLEANS    SPRING    MEETING,    1854.  343 

The  late  Eaces. — ^The  two  weeks'  Spring  races  of  the  Me- 
tairie  Jockey  Club  are  over,  and  now  that  the  excitement  con- 
nected with  them  is  past,  it  is  on  looking  back  and  reviewing 
the  series  of  brilliant  events  which  have  taken  place  during 
their  continuance,  that  we  can  truly  say  that  they  are  unpar- 
alleled in  the  racing  annals  of  the  country.  The  admirable  and 
discreet  manner  in  which  all  the  preliminaries  and  accessories 
were  arranged  by  Mr.  Richard  Ten  Broeck,  the  proprietor,  was 
most  fortunate  for  the  pleasure  and  success  of  the  meeting.  But 
few  persons  are  aware  of  the  many  perplexing  difficulties  to  be 
encountered  in  the  management  of  a  brilliant  race  meeting,  in 
order  to  give  that  general  satisfaction  which  is  felt  and  expressed 
by  the  community. 

During  the  last  two  weeks,  not  only  one  race,  but  many, 
have  been  run,  which  for  speed  are  unequalled  in  all  the  records 
of  the  "  Racing  Calendar." 

The  "  State  Stake,"  although  run  in  slow  time,  owing  to  the 
condition  of  the  track,  was  still  a  most  interesting,  closely  con- 
tested, and  heavy-betting  contest. 

The  three-mile  race  of  Blonde,  on  the  5th  inst.,  when  she 
beat  Little  Flea  in  5.361—5.34,  was  then  the  quickest  three- 
mile  race  on  record  ;  but  on  the  9th  inst..  Little  Flea  and  Arrow 
ran  a  three-mile  race  in  the  astonishing  time  of  6.33^—5.36— 
5.431 ;  Little  Flea  winning  the  first  heat  and  Arrow  winning 
the  race. 

Wild  Lnshman  won,  on  the  7th  inst.,  a  two-mile  purse,  in 
two  heats,  in  3.441—3.39. 

On  the  6th  inst.,  Teallie,  a  two-year-old  filly,  won  a  race  at 
mile  heats,  best  three  in  five,  in  which  six  horses  started,  in 
the  unequalled  time  of  1.47^1.48— 1.46i— 1.461—1  48—1  46i 
—1.50. 

Less  than  1.47  has  frequently  been  done  by  difi*erent  horses. 

But  the  most  brilliant  event  of  all  was  the  four-mile  race  of 
the  8th  inst.,  in  which  Lecomte,  Lexington  and  Reube  ran  ;  the 
latter  being  distanced  in  the  second  heat,  and  Lecomte  winning 
the  race  in  two  heats,  although  he  carried  three  pounds  over 
weight,  in  the  unparalleled  and  never  before  expected  fast  time 
of  7.26—7.381 !  We  might  dwell  upon  many  other  pleasant 
features  connected  with  the  late  meeting,  comparing  the  above 


344  THE    HCKSE. 

with  previous  performances,  but  this  paper  is  not  exactly  tlie 
proper  arena  for  that  interesting  discussion.  The  columns  of 
the  "  Spirit  of  the  Times  "  are  broad  and  ample,  and  there  we 
anticipate  reading  many  pleasant  recitals  of  the  incidents,  and 
comparisons  deduced  from  the  figures  and  blood  displayed 
during  the  late  meeting,  from  many  able  pens.  The  whole  sea- 
son has  been  most  profitable  to  the  enterprising  proprietor,  Mr. 
Ten  Broeck,  and  has  given  much  gratification  to  a  larger  num- 
ber of  persons  than  were  ever  before  assembled  in  this  portion 
of  the  country  on  similar  occasions. — I^.  0.  Picayune. 


These  campaigns  of  1854,  1855,  and  1856,  the  principal 
events  of  which,  as  above  recorded,  will  long  stand  conspicuous 
in  the  annals  of  the  American  Turf,  are  certainly  to  be  con- 
sidered of  great  mark. 

Although  the  springy  and  elastic  nature  of  the  New  Orleans 
courses  are  peculiarly  favorable  to  the  making  of  fast  time,  and 
the  excessive  lightness  of  the  Southern  weights  tend  to  the  same 
result,  no  one  can  deny  the  greatness  of  the  achievements. 

The  fastest  four-mile  heats  in  7.26^  by  Lecomte,  in  7.19f  by 
Lexington,  against  Lecomte's  time,  and  lastly  in  7.23f  by  Lex- 
ington, against  Lecomte;  the  fastest  three-mile  heats  in  5.30| 
and  5.28,  by  Brown  Dick  against  Arrow ;  and  the  fastest  mile 
that  ever  was  run,  of  truly  recorded  time,  and  that  the  third  of 
a  two-mile  heat,  constitute  certainly  a  record  of  which  to  be 
proud. 

But,  alas !  of  these  cliampions  what  remains  to  record  ? 
Lexington,  blind  prematurely  ;  Henry  Perritt,  dead  of  his  over- 
exertions ;  Lecomte,  said — it  is  hoped  unti-uly — to  be  amiss,  in 
his  forelegs,  in  England  ;  Pryor  and  Pryoress  alone  left  to 
support  their  country's  glory  on  the  classic  sod  of  Newmarket 
heath  and  Goodwood.  To  judge  of  the  powers  they  have 
shown,  and  of  the  vast  allowances  with  which  they  will  run, 
one  would  say  that  they  ought  to  conquer !  But  the  race  is  not 
always  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong.       H.  W.  H. 


PEDIGEEE, 

CHARACTERISTICS    AND    PERFORMANCES    OF    PRYOR. 

Pkyor  was  got  by  Glencoe,  in  1852 — dam  Gipsej,  own  sister 
to  Mecloc  by  American  Eclipse,  g.  dam  Young  Maid  of  the 
Oaks  by  Expedition,  g.  g.  dam,  Maid  of  the  Oaks  by  Spread 
Eagle,  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Sharke,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  byEockingham, 
g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  True  Whig,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Gal- 
lant, g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Eegulus,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g. 
dam  by  Diamond,  &c. 

Expedition  was  by  Pegasus,  dam  Active  by  "Woodpeckei-. 
Laura  by  Whistle  Jacket,  Pretty  Polly  by  Starling,  sister  to 
Diana  by  Second,  Hanger's  mare  by  Stanyan's  Arabian,  Gipsey 
by  King  William's  Barb,  Makeless,  Eoyal  mare. 

Pegasus  was  by  Eclipse  out  of  a  Bosphorus  mare,  Forester, 
Coalition  Colt,  Bustard,  Charming  Molly. 

Woodpecker  was  by  Herod,  dam  Miss  Eamsden,  Lonsdale 
Arabian,  Bay  Bolton,  Darley  Arabian,  Byerly  Turk,  Place's 
White  Turk,  Taffolet  Barb,  Barb  Mare. 

Whistle  Jacket  was  by  Mogul,  Sweepstakes  Mare,  Hamp- 
ton Court  Arab,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  White  Turk,  Dodsworth, 
Layton,  Barb  Mare. 

Mogul  was  by  the  Godolphin,  Large  Hartley  Mare. 

Sweepstakes  was  by  the  Bloody  Shouldered  Arab,  Basto, 
Old  Sport,  Toung  Spanker,  Hautboy,  Bustler. 

Spread  Eagle  was  got  by  Volunteer,  dam  by  Highflyer,  g. 
dam  by  Engineer,  g.  g.  dam  by  Cade,  g.  g.  g.  dam  Lass  of  the 
Mill  by  Traveller,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Miss  Makeless. 


346  TilE    llOKSE. 

Shakke  was  got  by  Marske,  dam,  Wag's  dam  by  Marlbo- 
rough, g.  dam  a  natural  Barb  mare,  dam  of  Lord  Portniore's 
Tiney. 

Marlborough  was  by  the  Godolphin  out  of  the  Large  Hart- 
ley Mare,  own  brother  to  Mogul. 

KocKiNGHAM  was  by  Partner,  dam  Imp.  mare  Blossom,  grand 
dam  by  Sloe,  g.  g.  dam  by  Eegulus. — ^This  mare  is  not  in  the 
Stud  Books. 

Partner  was  by  Moreton's  Traveller  out  of  Selima  by  the 
Godolphin. 

Moreton's  Traveller  was  by  Croft's  Partner,  Bloody  Buttocks, 
Greyhound,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  White  Turk,  Layton  Barb 
Mare. 

True  Whig  was  by  Frederick,  dam  the  Imp.  Mare,  Apollo's 
g.  dam,  by  the  Curwen  Barb. — ^This  from  Edgar's  Stud  Book, 
page  504,  wherein  at  page  227  it  is  stated  Frederick  was  the  son 
of  True  Whig. 

Gallant  was  got  by  Imp.  Fearnought,  dam  Stately  by  Imp. 
Sober  John,  g.  dam  Imp.  mare  Strawberry. 

Regulus  was  got  by  Imp.  Fearnought  out  of  imported  Jenny 
Dismal. 

Fearnought  was  by  Regulus,  dam  Silvertail  by  Heneage's 
Whitenose,  Rattle,  Darley  Arabian,  Old  Child  mare,  Gresley 
Arabian,  Yixen,  Ilelmsley  Turk,  Dodsworth's  dam. 

Jenny  Dismal  is  said  to  be  by  Dismal,  son  of  the  Godolphin, 
out  of  Bald  Charlotte,  but  is  not  in  the  Stud  Book. 

Sober  John  was  by  Hercules  out  of  sister  to  Telemachus,  by 
Herod,  Skim,  Janus,  Spinster  by  Crab,  Partner,  Bloody  But- 
tocks, Greyhound,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  White  Turk,  Dodsworth, 
Layton  Barb  Mare. 

Hercules  was  by  Matchem,  dam  Riot  by  Regulus,  Blaze, 
Fox,  Darley  Arabian,  Woodcock's  dam. 

The  mare  Strawberry  cannot  be  traced. 

Diamond  is  said  to  be  a  son  of  Hautboy,  his  dam  unknown, 
but  he  cannot  be  traced  in  the  English  Stud  Books ;  and  beyond 
this  the  pedigree  of  Gipsey  cannot  be  followed. 

This,  upon  the  whole,  may  be  regarded  as  a  fair  specimen  of 
an  American  pedigree,  being  traceable,  so  far  as  it  can  be  traced 
at  all,  to  English  horses  of  unimpeachable  character ;  and  failing 


DESCRIPTION    OF    PRTOR.  347 

at  last,  from  the  want  of  records  at  an  early  date.  The  worst 
point  abont  it  is  True  Whig,  about  whom  it  appears  that  abso- 
lutely nothing  is  known. 

The  performances  of  the  whole  family,  however,  are  far  too 
decided  and  too  long  sustained  to  leave  a  doubt  of  the  blood. 

DESCRIPTION  OF   PRTOK. 

Of  this  horse,  concerning  whom  there  has  always  prevailed 
something  of  mystery,  as  of  Lecomte,  I  have  been  able  to  find 
no  published  description.  The  fine  portrait  which  accompanies 
this  memoir,  exquisitely  engraved  by  Mr.  Hinshelwood,  from  an 
original  picture  in  the  possession  of  his  owner  Mr.  Ten  Broeck, 
and  lent,  by  his  courtesy,  for  this  work,  is  said  to  be  an  excel- 
lent likeness. 

Its  peculiar  characteristic" is  the  extreme  length  of  the  neck 
and  forehand,  and  the  light  spiry  cut  of  the  animal  generally; 
yet  we  are  told,  by  those  who  have  seen  and  known  him,  that  he 
is  rather  a  pony-built  and  close-ribbed-up  horse  tlian  otherwise, 
which  certainly  does  not  appear  from  the  portrait  in  question. 
His  color  is  a  somewhat  dull  chestnut.  There  has  been  some  dis- 
pute about  his  age,  but  I  can  state  on  authority  that  it  is  clearly 
authenticated  that  he  is  only  in  his  fourth  year. 

His  first  appearance  was  on  the  Metairie  Course  at  'New 
Orleans,  on  the  same  day  on  which  Lexington  won  his  great 
match  against  Lecomte's  time,  when  he  came  out  winner,  in  the 

Thursday,  April  5th— Picayune  stakes,  2  year  olds  to  carry  3  year  old  weights,  colts  86  lbs.,  flUies 
83  lbs.,  nineteen  subscribers,  mile  heats,  at  $-300  each,  forfeit,  $100,  dec.  $50. 

E.  Ten  Broeck's  ch.  c.  Pryor,  by  Imp  Glencoe,  out  of  Gipsey, 2    11 

W.  J.  Minor's  gr.  f.  La  dame  Blanche,  by  Voucher,  out  of  Lady  Jane  by  Imp.  Levi- 
athan,         132 

D.  r.  Kenner's  Melody,  by  Voucher  out  of  Music, 3    2    8 

Time,  1.50— 1.50— 1.56i. 

Again  at  the  same  meeting,  he  ran  with  different  fortune. 

Friday,  April  18th.— Sweepstakes  of  2  year  olds  to  carry  3  year  old  weights,  as  above,  mile  heats, 

five  subscribers  at  $200  each,  h.  ft.  with  $280  added  by  the  Club. 
D.  F.  Kenner's  br.  t.  Minnow,  by  Voucher  out  of  Dolphin  by  Leviathan,       .        .        .        2    11 

R.  Ten  Broeek"s  ch.  c.  Pryor,  by  Imp.  Glencoe  out  of  Gipsey, 3    2    2 

A.  L.  Bingaman's  b.  c.  by  Bundle  and  Go,  dam  by  Modoc, 4    4    3 

A.  Lecomte  &  Co.'s  ch.  g.  Mary  Bertrand,  by  Glencoe,  dam  byPrince,   .        .        .        .        1    8  dst 
A.  L.  Bingaman's  g.  c.  by  Bclshazzar  out  of  Laura  by  Pacific, 
Time.  1.53*— 1.46*— 1.48J. 


348  THK  noKSE. 

In  the  autumn  he  was  again  defeated  by  Minnow — 

For— "SVoi^nesday,  Nov.  4th.— Jockey  Club  Purse,  $400,  for  all  ages,  8  year  olds  carrying  8G  lbs.,  4— 
100  lbs.,  5—110  lbs.,  6—118  lbs.,  7  and  upwards  124  lbs.,  allowing  3  lbs.  for  mares  and  geld- 
ings.   Two-inile  heats. 
D.  F.  Kcnner's  d.  g.  Minnow,  by  Voucher  out  of  Dolphin  by  Imp.  Leviathan,  8  years,  1    1 

R.  Ten  Broeck's  eh.  c.  Pryor,  by  Glencoe  out  of  Gipsey,  3  years,         ..-,.22 

D.  J.  Minor's  ch.  c.  Vandyke,  by  Imp.  Belshazzar  out  of  Imp.  Britannia,  4  years,       .       .       8  dst. 

Time,  8.48—3.86  . 

And  in  the  month  ensuing  he  closed  his  campaign  on  the 
Metairie  Course. 

Sunday,  Dec.  9th.— Purse,  $250,  for  all  ages,  weight  as  above.    Two-mile  heats. 

E.  Ten  Broeck's  ch.  c.  Pryor,  by  Glencoe  out  of  Gipsey,  8  years  old, 11 

A.  Lccomte  &  Co.'s  Corinnc,  by  Imp.  Glencoe  dam  by  Imp.  Sarpedon,  8  years, ...       2    2 

B.  Eiley's  ch.  g.  Bed  Ox,  by  Pat  Galway  out  of  Ha'penny,  4  years  old,  carried  5  lbs.  extra,     3    8 

Time,  4.13—4.17. 


NATCHEZ,  MISS.,  SPRING  RACES. 

PHARSALIA   COUKSE. 

PRYOR    AND   LECOMTE— PRYOR   THE   VICTOR. 

Thied  Day. — The  race  wliich  took  place  at  Natchez  on  Sat- 
urday last,  four-mile  heats,  between  Pryor  and  Lecomte,  was,  I 
think,  almost  equal  to  any  I  ever  witnessed,  stamping  both  of 
the  contending  nags  as  iirst-rate  horses,  and  proving  conclusive- 
ly to  ray  mind  that  Lecomte  is  a  gamer  and  better  horse  than  I 
had  previously  given  him  credit  for.  Tlie  difficulties  M'hich  he 
encountered  in  the  prosecution  of  his  tedious  land  journey  from 
Alexandria  to  Natchez,  could  not  have  been  instrumental  in 
improving  his  condition,  which,  however,  to  appearance  was 
all  that  could  be  desired.  His  eye  was  clear  and  bright,  as  was 
his  skin,  and  his  proud  defiant  air,  and  elastic  step,  betokened 
ability  to  go  the  pace,  and  keep  it.  In  his  exercise,  which  I 
particularly  noticed  the  day  before  the  race,  I  was  much  pleased 
with  the  style  in  which  he  came  down  the  quarter  stretch.  He 
looked  as  if  he  could  fairly  fly.  He  had  no  superfluous  flesh 
upon  him,  and  in  short,  upon  stripping  for  the  race,  he  looked 
the  perfection  of  a  horse. 

Of  Pryor  but  little  was  known,  and  therefore  little  was  ex- 
pected.    Twice  had  he  met  Mr.  Kenner's  filly  Minnow,  and  in 


PBTOR   AND   LECOMTE.  349 

both  instances  he  was  compelled  to  yield  the  palm  of  snperi- 
oritj  to  her  powers — the  latter  race  of  two-mile  heats  was  the 
longest  distance  he  had  ever  run.  In  his  race  with  Le  Eoi, 
three  days  previously,  he  had  developed  extraordinary  fleetuess, 
and  the  purity  of  his  blood,  and  the  general  excellence  of  his 
form,  gave  promise  ot  endurance  which  lured  his  trainer  to  the 
desperate  chance  of  attacking  even  so  formidable  a  rival  as  the 
renowned  Lecomte,  of  Y.26  memory.  A  better  bred  or  more 
gallant  steed  ne'er  struck  the  ground  than  Pryor,  and  in  this 
contest  well  and  nobly  has  he  sustained  the  exalted  reputation 
that  his  ancestoi's,  on  the  maternal  side,  years  long  gone  by, 
established  upon  the  American  Turf  by  their  glorious  achieve- 
ments. 

The  Pharsalia  Course,  at  best  a  slow  one,  according  to  esti- 
mates of  those  who,  for  many  years,  have  trained  and  run 
horses  upon  it,  was  not  less  than  from  twelve  to  fifteen  seconds 
slower  than  in  its  best  condition,  and  yet  the  time  made  upon 
this  occasion,  if  I  have  not  been  misinformed,  was  better  than 
au}^  every  before  made  upon  the  course.  This  speaks  trumpet- 
tongued,  and  fully  explains  the  superiority  of  the  contestants, 
and  the  excellence  of  their  condition. 

There  was  but  little  betting  at  the  commencement  of  the 
race — 100  to  15  in  some  instances — 100  to  20  for  a  while  cur- 
rent— more  hundreds  than  twenties  on  Lecomte. « 

The  lack  of  changes  or  variety  in  the  race,  precludes  the 
necessity  of  a  very  lengthy  description.  It  was  evident,  from 
the  start,  that  the  instructions  to  Pryor's  rider  were,  "  wait  and 
win,"  and  he  fulfilled  them  to  the  letter,  and  rode  the  race 
throughout  in  a  style  that  would  have  given  credit  to  Gil.  Pa- 
trick. 

Pryor  went  ofi*  with  the  lead,  but  resigned  it  to  Lecomte  at 
the  commencement  of  the  back  stretch,  and  took  position  about 
three  lengths  in  his  rear.  These  positions  were  but  slightly 
changed  during  three  and  a  half  miles,  the  pace,  however,  visi- 
bly increased  in  the  second  and  third  miles.  On  the  fourth  mile 
they  were  running  at  tell-tale  stroke.  Just  after  passing  the 
half-mile  post,  Pryor  made  play,  and,  by  a  terrific  burst  of 
speed,  passed  his  competitor  like  a  dart,  amidst  the  most  un- 
earthly and  deafening  shouts  I  ever  heard.     The  run  home  was 


350  THK    HORSE. 

at  a  rapid  flight,  and  for  a  while  exciting ;  Lecomte,  however, 
could  not  reach  his  wiry  antagonist,  wlio  came  to  the  stand 
about  a  clear  length  in  the  lead.  The  time  of  the  fourth  mile, 
1.52  !  of  the  heat,  7.47. 

The  problem  of  Pryor's  ability  to  go  another  four  miles 
was  not  yet  solved  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  friends,  and  at  the 
pace  which  it  was  certain  Lecomte  would  carry  him  the  next 
heat,  they  well  knew  he  had  to  be  a  trump.  He  looked,  how- 
ever, as  if  he  could  go  to  Salisbury,  N.  C,  and  his  appearance 
and  behavior,  before  starting  for  the  second  heat,  inspired 
fresh  confidence  in  his  friends,  who  backed  hira  heavily  at  even, 
to  win. 

Lecomte  was  evidently  not  a  little  the  worse  for  wear. 
When  he  stopped,  he  "blew  out"  strong  and  heartily,  but  a 
short  time  before  starting  again  he  had  a  quick  "  sheep  blow," 
which  plainly  indicated  that  he  was  tired,  and  his  conduct  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  the  race  impelled  me  to  the  conviction 
which  I  have  expressed  at  the  commencement  of  this  report. 
Throughout  the  whole  race,  gallantly  and  faithfully  did  he  re- 
spond to  each  call  made  upon  him — but  in  vain ;  it  was  too 
evident  that  he  was  overmatched. 

The  second  heat  was  almost  a  repetition  of  the  first,  save 
that  it  was  faster,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  astonished 
all  who  witnessed  it.  Lecomte  was  determined  to  "  do  or  die." 
Pryor  equally  determined  to  allow  him  to  regulate  the  pace, 
until  it  suited  his  rider  to  take  the  lead.  Yery  nearly  at  the 
same  spot  as  in  the  first  heat  he  made  a  terrific  dash,  and  gave 
him  the  go-by  at  a  sort  of  telegraphic  speed,  and  came  in,  I  am 
constrained  to  say,  an  easy  winner.  About  that  time,  and  for 
several  minutes  afterward,  it  would  have  been  somewhat  diffi- 
cult to  "  hear  any  thing  drop."     The  time  of  the  heat,  7.44f . 

SUMMAET. 
Saturday,  March  15— Association  Purse,  $800,  for  all  ages,  weig;hts  as  above.     Four-mile  heats. 
A.  L.  Bingainan's— R.  Ten  Broeck's— ch.  c.  Pryor,  pedigree  above,  3  yrs.         .  ..11 

Thos.  J.  Wells'  ch.  h.  Lecomte,  by  Boston,  out  of  Reel,  5  yrs.        ......        2    2 

FIRST  HEAT.  I  SECOND  HEAT. 

Time  of  first  mile,  2.00    Time  of  first  mile, 1.56 

Time  of  second  mile, 1.57  i  Time  of  second  mile, 1.56 

Time  of  third  mile, 1.58    Time  of  tliird  mile, 4.58 

Time  of  fourth  mile, 1.52    Time  of  fourth  mile, 1.54 

Time  of  first  heat, 7.47  |  Time  of  second  heat, T.44{ 

Track  heavy. 

New  Orleans  Picayune. 


PEKFOKMANCES    OF    PKTOR.  351 

In  the  month  of  July,  1856,  he  was  sent  with  Lecomte  and 
Prioress,  Mr.  Ten  Broeck's  string,  by  the  City  of  Edinburgh  to 
Glasgow,  and  is  now  understood  to  be  in  training  on  Newmarket 
heath.  It  is  understood  that  their  owner  entertains  higlier 
hopes  and  expectations  of  this  horse,  than  his  performances 
would  appear  exactly  to  justify,  but  his  sagacity  and  judgment 
are  such,  and  have  been  so  rarely  proved,  that  it  were  unwise 
greatly  to  distrust  the  conclusions  to  which  he  may  have  delib- 
erately come,  on  grounds  best  known  to  himself. 


FASHION  JOCKEY  CLUB  RACES. 

APRIL  SPRING  MEETING,  1856. 

Second  Race — Second  Day. — ^There  were  three  entries  for 
the  Jockey  Club  stakes,  four-mile  heats — Pryor,  Floride,  and 
Augusta ;  the  latter  paid  forfeit ;  in  town  on  Tuesday  and 
Wednesday  morning,  Floride  was  the  favorite,  but  as  the  race 
was  postponed,  all  bets  made  previous  to  the  postponement  are 
void.  On  the  course,  Pryor  was  the  favorite  at  100  to  75,  and  a 
large  amount  of  money  was  laid  out  at  these  odds — one  gentle- 
man winning  not  less  than  $10,000. 

Pryor  drew  the  track,  and  an  excellent  start  was  effected. 
Floride  soon  went  in  front,  and  passed  the  stand  a  length  ahead 
the  first  mile,  Pryor  making  a  waiting  race  of  it  until  reaching 
the  first  quarter  of  the  last  mile,  when  he  went  up,  and  they 
passed  the  half  mile  post  lapped,  Pryor  winning  handily  by 
three  lengths. 

Second  Heat. — 100  to  20  and  100  to  10  were  now  offered  on 
Pryor,  but  few  or  no  takers  could  be  found,  as  it  was  thought 
that  Floride  could  not  make  her  way  through  the  heavy  course^ 
Floride  led  off,  and  took  the  track  after  making  the  first  turn. 
The  running  from  here  to  the  end  was  similar  to  that  in  the 
first  heat,  Pryor  waiting  till  the  last  half  mile,  when  he  went 
up,  passed,  and  won  by  two  lengths.  Floride  is  a  beautiful 
mare,  but  Pryor  is  a  perfect  specimen  of  a  race-horse. 


352  TJIK    llOUSK. 

Tlie  following  is  a  summary  of  the  day's  sport : — 

Thursday,  June  19— Jockey  Club  stakes  for  all  ages,  weights  as  before.    Three  subs,  at  $200  each, 
$100  ft.     If  two  shall  start,  the  Club  will  add  $900 ;  if  three,  $1,200 ;  if  four,  or  more,  $1,500 ; 
if  three  or   more   shall  start,  then  the  second  best  to   receive  back  its  entrance  mviney. 
Four-mile  heats. 
E.  Ten  Broeck"s  ch.  c.  Pryor,  by  imp.  Glencoe,  out  of  Gipsey  by  Eclipse,  4  yrs.         .        .11 
T.  J.  Woolfolk's  ch.  m.  Floride,  by  Wagner,  dam  by  Imp.  Glencoe,  5  yrs.         ...       2    2 
Calvin  Green's  b.  f.  Augusta,  pedigree  above,  4  yrs pd.  ft. 

FrEST  HEAT.  I  SECOND  HEAT. 

Time  of  first  mile, 2,08      Time  of  first  mile, 2.14 

Time  of  second  mile,       ....  2.06      Time  of  second  mile,      ....  2.10i 

Time  of  third  mile.    .        ,        .        .        .  2.02i  |  Time  of  third  mile, l.SSJ 

Time  of  fourth  mile,       ....  2.01      Time  of  fourth  mile,       ....  1.56J 

Time  of  first  heat, 81.7}  |  Time  of  second  heat 8.19 

Same  day— Association  stake  for  three-year-olds,  weights  as  before.    Four  subs,  at  $.300  each,  $100 

ft.,  with  $300  added.    Mile  heats. 
"Wm.  H.  Gibbon's  ch.  g.  Nicholas  I.,  by  imp.  Glencoe,  out  of  Nannie  Rhodes  by  Wagner,    1    1 
Calvin  Green's  b.  c.  by  imp.  Glencoe,  out  of  Darkness  by  Wagner, 3    2 

E.  Ten  Brocck's  b.  f.  Prioress  (late  Poison),  by  imp.  Sovereign,  out  of  Eeel  by  imp. 

Glencoe, ,       .  2  dist 

F.  Morris's  br.  f.  Etiquette,  pedigree  above, pd.  ft. 

Time,  1.55—1.57*.    Track  heavy. 

A  very  numerous  assemblage  of  spectators  was,  present,  and 
quite  a  large  number  of  ladies,  'vvliose  smiling  countenances  lent 
a  charm  to  the  scene  which  is  too  frequently  wanting  on  our 
courses ;  and  the  way  they  (the  ladies)  entered  into  the  sport, 
was  a  caution  to  persons  wlio  think  it  a  sin  to  laugh  on  Sunday, 
or  witness  a  contest  of  speed  between  the  noblest  of  the  brute 
creation,  although  they  object  not  to  attend  in  thousands  to 
witness  a  trial  of  strength  between  two  yoke  of  powerful  oxen 
drawing  a  load  of  several  tons  up  hill.  Two  of  these  ladies, 
by  the  way,  finding  the  reporters'  stand  a  very  convenient  place 
from  which  to  view  the  race,  took  advantage  of  our  temporary 
absence,  and  possession  of  our  seat,  much  to  our  regret,  and 
kept  it  until  the  termination  of  the  heat,  TVe  were  too  gallant, 
of  course,  to  attempt  to  dislodge  them — they  did  seem  to  enjoy 
it  so  ! 


COMPAKATIYE    ESTIMATE 


SPEED,  BOTTOM,  POWERS   AND   VALUE   OF  BRITISH  AND   AMERICAN 
RACERS,    IN    THE    PRESENT    AND   PAST    CENTURY. 

There  has  been  now,  for  several  years,  a  general  if  not  preva- 
lent opinion,  sustained  bj  manj  persons,  not  merely  laudor 
tores  temporis  acti — arguing,  however,  on  theory  rather  than  on 
experience,  and  founding  their  arguments  on  facts,  in  them- 
selves questionable,  and  assumed  on  little  more  than  mere  ru- 
mor— that  the  modern  race-horse  has  degenerated,  both  in  speed 
and  stoutness,  from  his  renowned  English  ancestry ;  and  sec- 
ondly, that  the  tendency  of  modern  breeding — or  as,  at  least, 
one  writer  terms  it,  too  thorough  breeding — has  been  to  en- 
courage speed  at  the  expense  of  bottom,  and  so  to  detract  detri- 
mentally from  the  stanchness  and  endurance  of  the  modern 
race-horse ;  and,  lastly,  that  by  the  system  of  training  young, 
and  running  short  courses,  the  English  race-horse  has  fallen  be- 
hind its  American  descendant  in  the  ability  to  run  long  dis- 
tances. 

The  first  of  these  assumptions,  that  the  race-horse  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  whether  English  or  American,  has  degen- 
erated from  the  famous  worthies  of  the  eighteenth,  and  if  so, 
whether  young  training  and  short  racing  are  the  causes  of  such 
degeneracy,  are  matters  well  worthy  of  consideration. 

Tliat  of  the  comparative  qualities  of  the  English  and  Ameri- 
can race-horse,  is  less  so,  and  only  so  at  all,  inasmuch  as  it  is 
connected  with  the  different  systems  of  training  and  running 
Vol.  I.— 23 


354  THE    HOUSE. 

adopted  in  the  two  countries.  This  question,  moreover,  can 
hardly  be  tested  satisfactorily,  so  different  are  all  the  conditions 
of  the  turf  here  and  there,  as  regards  weiglit,  distance,  and  me- 
thod of  riding,  and  so  imperfectly  understood,  even  now,  is  the 
influence  of  weight,  on  the  same  horse,  as  against  time — timing 
itself  being  still  but  little  practised,  and  until  lately  wholly  dis- 
used and  uncomprehended  as  a  test,  on  British  race-courses. 

The  general  assumption  of  degeneracy  rests  mainly  on  the 
stories — "wonderful  tales,"  as  "Cecil"  justly  calls  them,  which 
have  been  related  concerning  Flying  Childers  and  Eclipse,  of 
both  which  nndeniably  good  and  unbeaten  horses  it  is  com- 
monly asserted  and  as  commonly  believed,  that  they  ran  a  mile 
in  a  minute,  there  being  not  a  shadow  of  evidence  to  the  point, 
but  directly  the  reverse,  and  it  being  all  but  demonstrable  that 
the  feat  is  a  physical  iuipossibility, 

"  These  wonderful  tales," — I  proceed  to  quote  at  length  from 
"  Cecil,"  who  has  gone  deeply  into  this  subject,  and,  to  my  idea, 
entirely  disposed  of  the  question, — "  like  the  snowball,  have  in- 
creased in  their  progress  ;  therefore  a  brief  digression  is  neces- 
sary to  unfold  these  romantic  conceptions.  It  is  related  that  he 
gave  Fox  twelve  pounds  over  the  Beacon  Course,  and  beat  him 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  a  trial.  Every  racing  man  would  natu- 
rally inquire  if  Fox  could  not  have  got  nearer  at  the  end,  and  few 
indeed  would  place  much  reliance  on  trials  without  substantial 
evidence  to  corroborate  reports.  It  is  also  said,  that  he  ran  a  trial 
against  Almanzor  and  Brown  Betty,  nine  stone  two  each,"  aliter, 
he  carrying  9  stone  21bs.,  they,  8  stone  21bs.,  each — over  the 
Round  Course  at  Newmarket,  three  miles,  six  furlongs,  and  ninety- 
three  yards,  which  distance,  according  to  many  accounts  in 
print,  "  he  ran  in  6m.  40s." — aliter  6m.  42s. — "  to  perform 
which,"  it  is  farther  absurdly  stated,  "  he  must  have  moved  at 
the  rate  of  eighty-tAJOo  and  a  half  feet  in  a  second  of  time,  or 
nearly  at  the  rate  of  one  mile  in  a  minute.''''  The  inaccuracy  of 
this  is  patent.  If  a  horse  moved  at  the  rate  described  he  would 
get  over  the  ground  in  a  trifle  less  than  four  minutes  and  a  half. 
No  horse  that  ever  was  foaled  ever  went  at  the  pace  spoken  of. 
The  rate  of  fifty  feet  in  a  second  is  very  great,  and  more  than 
the  average  pace  required  to  run  the  distance  of  the  Beacon 
Course,  four  miles  one  furlong  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight 


ECLIPSE   AND    CHILDERS.  356 

yards,  in  seven  minutes  and  a  half,  which  Childers  is  also  re- 
ported to  have  done.  To  prove  still  farther,  if  it  were  needed, 
the  ntter  absurdity  of  the  mile  in  a  minute,  or  eighty-two  feet 
and  a  half  in  a  second,  story,  it  only  need  be  stated  that  twenty- 
three  feet  is  the  full  average  stride  of  the  best  horses  at  speed, 
and  consequently,  that  to  cover  eighty-two  and  a  half  feet  in  a 
second,  the  horse  must  gather  and  extend  itself  within  a  fraction 
of  four  times,  a  physical  impossibility,  in  a  second. 

"After  all  the  high-flown  panegyrics,"  continues  Cecil, 
"  concerning  the  racing  exploits  of  this  horse  in  publi  c — the 
only  trials  worthy  of  credence — they  were  confined  to  the  win- 
ning two  matches,  for  the  first  of  which  at  six  years  old,  carry- 
ing 8  stone  5  lbs.  each — 119  lbs. — ^iie  beat  Speedwell,  a  gelding  of 
equivocal  celebrity.  The  distance  was  four  miles.  Tor  the 
second,  when  seven  years  old,  he  beat  Chanter,  twelve  years 
old,  six  miles.  He  was  engaged  in  three  other  matches,  for 
which  he  received  forfeit."  ISTo  time,  it  is  observable,  is  on  rec- 
ord as  to  his  public  running ;  a  circumstance,  which,  to  say 
the  least,  throws  a  doubt  on  that  related  to  have  been  made  on 
his  trials. 

Granting,  however,  that  the  timing  of  Childers'  race  over 
the  Beacon,  4:m.  Ifg.  138  yds.,  or  in  other  words  four  miles, 
358  yards,  is  correctly  stated  at  7m.  30s.,  by  deducting  the  ex- 
cess of  358  yards,  we  find,  by  the  simple  rule  of  three,  that  he 
would  have  done  his  four  miles  in  7m.  19s.,  or  within  a  fraction 
of  the  same  time  it  took  Lexington  to  run  his  four  miles  against 
time,  in  public,  and  bets  paid,  which  established  the  time.  I 
do  not  find  the  weight  carried  by  Childers  in  this  trial  t.-)  have 
been  recorded,  but  taking  it  to  have  been  the  same  as  that  with 
which  he  ran  over  the  Round  Course,  viz.,  8  stone  5  lbs.  or 
119  lbs.,  and  his  age  to  have  been  six  years,  the  time  is  not  in 
excess  of  Lexington's  race,  even  at  Southern  low  weights. 

Firetail  is  said  to  have  run  a  mile  in  1772  in  one  minute  and 
four  seconds,  but  there  is  no  authentic  record  of  races  kept  of 
this  date,  and  the  fact  may  safely  be  denied,  on  the  grounds 
above  shown,  in  regard  to  physical  impossibility. 

Concerning  Eclipse's  real  powers,  no  correct  estimate  can 
possibly  be  formed,  nor  was  formed  at  the  time,  since,  though 
he  ran  against  all  the  best  horses  of  his  day,  and  always  beat 


356  THE    HORSE. 

them  Tvith  ease  carrying  enormous  weights — he  won  ten  king's 
pktes  with  twelve  stone,  or  168  lbs.  on  his  back — he  was  never 
put  to  liis  speed,  nor  was  his  time  ever  kept. 

He  was  undoubtedly  a  marvellous  animal,  both  as  a  racer 
and  in  the  stud,  having  begot  one  hundred  and  thirty  winners, 
who  brought  their  owners  more  than  £160,000  exclusive  of  cups, 
and  that,  it  must  be  remembered,  at  a  time  when  great  races 
were  few,  and  the  vast  prizes  of  the  present  day  unknown. 

In  December,  1786,  Mr.  Hull's  Quibbler  ran  twenty-three 
miles  round  the  flat,  at  Newmarket,  in  fifty-seven  minutes.  It 
does  not  clearly  appear  whether  this  is  to  be  understood  as  be- 
ing a  straight  race,  without  an  intermission,  or  as  an  aggregate 
of  heats ;  probably,  however,  it  refers  to  a  single  unbroken  ef- 
fort. 

If  it  were  done,  at  heats,  the  speed  would  be  nothing  re- 
markable, nor  the  stoutness. 

Twelve  miles  were  made  by  Henry  and  Eclipse  in  1823,  in 
an  aggregate  of  three  heats,  in  23m.  50s.  over  the  Union  Course  ; 
and  twenty  miles,  in  an  aggregate  of  five  heats,  by  Black  Maria, 
beating  Lady  Belief,  Trifle  and  Slim,  in  41m.  40s. 

Considered  as  a  single  gallop,  it  was  highly  creditable,  but 
when  we  have  seen  twenty  miles  trotted  within  the  hour,  we 
cannot  regard  it  as  so  extraordinary,  nor  can  we  doubt  that  it 
could  be  easily  beat,  at  the  present  day,  by  any  one  of  a  dozen 
race-horses  on  the  American  or  English  Turf. 

Thus  far,  therefore,  there  are  no  grounds  whatever  for  be- 
lieving that  tlie  modern  race-horse  has  in  any  sense  degener- 
ated from  the  worthies  of  the  turf  of  the  olden  time,  even  if 
we  admit,  as  satisfactorily  established — which  we  are,  however, 
far  from  doing — the  remarkable  trials,  above  cited,  disallowing 
of  course  the  fabulous  myths,  which  have  only  obtained  with 
the  vulgar,  and  never  had  the  smallest  credit  with  racing  men, 
or  others  really  acquainted  with  the  powers  of  the  horse,  of 
miles  run  in  a  minute  and  the  like. 

Supposing  Childers  to  have,  in  fact,  run  the  Beacon  Course 
in  the  time  stated,  or  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  in  7m.  19s.,  and 
the  Round  Course  in  6m.  42. — which  would  be  at  the  rate  of 
four  miles,  in  about  7m.  5s. — although  the  speed  would  be  ex- 
traordinary, I  may  say  marvellous,  even  at  the  extremely  low 


WEIGHT    AND    TlilE.  357 

weiglit  of  119  lbs.  for  a  six-jear-old,  which  is  a  pound  more  than 
Southern  weight — the  perfect  facility  with  which  he  and  his 
successor  Eclipse  ran  away  from  every  thing  that  encountered 
them,  demonstrates,  that  their  superiority  to  all  horses  of  their 
own  day,  was  as  great  or  greater  than  it  would  be  to  our  racers 
of  1856. 

But  as  I  have  said  before,  there  is  no  evidence  of  this  speed, 
as  described,  even  of  these  phenomena  ;  much  less  any  pretence, 
that  such  speed  was  common  to  all  horses  of  the  day.  Far  from 
it.  A  writer  in  the  London  old  Sporting  Mag.,  in  1840,  in  an  ar- 
ticle republished  in  Wm.  T.  Porter's  American  Turf  Register, 
Vol.  XI.  p.  326,  and  written  avowedly  to  prove  that  Eclipse  and 
Flying  Childers  were  the  best  horses  that  ever  went "  on  four  pas- 
terns," asserts  that  were  the  latter  alive  now  he  would  "  easily  beat 
the  best  racers  of  the  present  day,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  a  four- 
mile  race,"  founding  this  assumption  on  a  fact,  or  what  he  asserts 
to  be  a  fact,  that  the  Beacon  Course  has  never,  since,  been  run  in 
shorter  time,  than  it  was  by  Hambletonian  and  Diamond,  in 
1799  ;  or  the  Round  Course  in  better,  than  by  Alonzo  and  Or- 
ville,  in  1802.  And  these  second  best  time  races  he  sets  re- 
spectively at  45,  and  32s.,  worse,  than  those  of  Childers  as  stated 
above. 

But  adding  45s.  to  Tm.  19s.,  the  rate  at  which  Childers  is 
said  to  have  run  four  miles  over  the  Beacon  track,  and  we  get 
8m.  4s.  for  the  time  of  Hambletonian  and  Diamond ;  and  add- 
ing 32s.  to  Tm.  5s. — the  rate  at  which  the  Round  Course  would 
have  been  done,  if  protracted  to  four  miles,  according  to  the 
time  in  which  he  is  stated  to  have  run  over  it,  against  Alman- 
zor  and  Brown  Betty,  we  get  7m.  37s.,  as  the  time  of  Alonzo 
and  Orville. 

These  were,  moreover,  both  single  dashes,  not  heat  races, 
and,  therefore,  do  not  tell  so  decisively. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  to  American  sportsmen,  that  the 
time  of  the  first  race,  8m.  4s.,  for  a  first  lieat,  is  simply  no  time 
at  all,  nor  has  been  so  considered,  in  the  United  States,  for  the 
last  thirty  years ;  and  that  7m.  37s.,  though  it  was  thought 
great,  in  1823,  when  done  by  Henry,  has  now  fallen  altogether 
into  the  shade,  in  1856. 

In  considering  this  point,  I  have  of  course  drawn  my  com- 


858 


THE    HORSE. 


parisons  between  the  races  of  those  old  celebrities,  and  the  sim- 
ilar races  of  Americcm  horses  of  the  present  day,  because,  through 
the  altered  mode  of  public  running  lately  adopted  in  England, 
stoutness  and  bottom  being  there  tested  by  heavy  weights  and 
shorter  distances,  run  nearly  at  the  score  from  end  to  end,  it  is 
impossible  to  measure  them  directly  against  the  present  win- 
ners of  English  stakes. 

I  do  not  wish  to  enter  invidiously  into  any  question  of  su- 
periority or  inferiority  between  English  and  American  horses. 
If  there  be  aiiy  advantage,  it  arises — can  arise  —only  from  the 
influences  of  climate  and  the  different  modes  of  training,  &c., 
the  blood  being,  as  I  have  shown,  identical. 

But  I  must — in  order  to  show,  what  I  believe  to  be  true, 
that  the  English  no  more  than  the  American  racer,  of  1800,  has 
fallen  below  his  ancestry,  of  1700,  in  the  ability  to  endure,  and 
to  run  long  and  repeated  races,  if  it  were  required  of  him — en- 
deavor to  show  briefly,  wherefore  I  do  not  yield  the  palm  of 
bottom  in  running  distances,  any  more  than  in  carrying  M'eight, 
or  in  speed,  to  the  improved  modern  race-horse  of  the  United 
States  over  the  improved  modern  racer  of  England. 

In  the  first  place,  if  the  racing  field  no  longer  show  blood- 
horses  under  the  same  conditions  of  long  distances,  and  those 
repeated  at  intervals,  the  hunting  field  which,  in  fast  countries, 
is  supplied  altogether  by  thoroughbreds,  since  no  others  can  go 
the  pace,  or  go  the  distance,  with  welter  weights  on  their  backs, 
across  fences  and  through  dirt  and  clay  often  hock-deep — does 
exliibit  such  horses,  under  precisely  such  conditions,  in  even 
greater  numbers  and  with  more  even  results,  than  ever  did  four, 
or  even  six-mile  heat  races,  on  either  side  the  Atlantic.  A 
thoroughbred,  which  will  carry  15  stone,  or  210  lbs,  through 
two  bursts  of  six  or  seven  miles  each — with  an  interval  of  an 
hour  between  them,  not  devoted  to  rubbing  down,  drying  off, 
and  recruiting,  but  to  crossing  the  country  slowly,  while  the 
hounds  are  drawing — respectively  in  25  and  30  minutes,  taking 
perhaps  a  hundred  rasping  fences,  or  large  brooks  in  the  course 
of  each  burst,  and  going  over  every  sort  of  bad  and  broken 
ground,  often  hock-deep  in  greasy  ploughland,  or  fetlock-deep 
in  what  is  worse,  sticky  turf,  would,  one  might  say,  have  little 
difficulty  in  running  over  a  sound  hard  course,  with  less  tlian 


OSBALDESTOX'S    MATCH.  359 

half  the  weight  on  his  back,  double  the  distance,  in  half  the  time 
named  or  even  under  half,  if  there  be  any  semblance  of  truth  in 
the  modern  theory  of  weight,  and  its  iuiluence  on  speed.  Ac- 
cording to  the  old  dictum,  that  seven  pounds  is  equal  to  a  dis- 
tance of  120  yards,  in  a  four-mile  race,  as  between  equal  horses, 
ninety-two  pounds,  or  the  difference  between  15  stone  and 
118  lbs..  Southern  six-year-old  weight,  would  be  equal  to  at 
least  one  mile  in  four,  if  both  animals  were  ridden  over  the 
same  course,  or  the  same  country. 

The  training,  moreover,  of  thoroughbreds  for  the  hunting- 
field  is  exceedingly  similar,  in  all  respects,  to  that  of  racers  for 
four-mile  heats;  except  that,  probably,  the  former  are  com- 
monly somewhat  higher  in  flesh ;  though  I  think  I  have  seen 
horses  start,  on  the  Union  Com-se,  quite  as  full  of  flesh  as  I  have 
ever  seen  a  thoroughbred  hunter  in  ITorthampton  or  Leicester- 
shire. 

What  is  true  of  the  hunter,  is  no  less,  but  far  more,  true  of 
the  steeple  chaser,  who  is  invariably  thoroughbred — ^if  he  be 
not,  he  has  not  a  chance  of  being  any  where — and  who  is  put 
carrying  heavy  man-weight,  to  perform  the  severest,  most  try- 
ing, most  exhausting  and  cruellest  exertions,  for  which  horse- 
flesh can  be  called  upon. 

In  proof  of  what  I  have  here  put  forward,  we  will  cast  a 
glance  at  the  most  remarkable  match  against  time  that  has  been 
ridden  within  the  memory  of  man,  I  mean  that  of  Osbaldeston, 
to  ride  two  hundred  miles,  within  ten  hours,  over  the  Newmar- 
ket Kound  course,  in  1831 — a  feat  which  he  performed  in  7h. 
19m.  is. — or  adding  Ih.  22m.  56s.  for  stoppages,  in  8h.  42m. 

In  this  match  Mr.  Osbaldeston  weighed  11  stone,  or 
154  lbs. — it  is  not  clearly  stated  whether  this  is  net  weight,  or 
includes  his  saddle — and  rode  twenty-eight  horses — all  of  them, 
of  course,  thoroughbreds,  though  not  one  of  any  previous  celeb- 
rity, or  standing  on  the  turf  as  racers  of  reputation,  dividing 
the  distance  into  four-mile  heats,  for  his  own  convenience  and 
the  facility  of  changing. 

Nineteen  of  the  twenty-eight  he  rode  more  than  once.  Six- 
teen performed  two  heats  each,  and  averaged  their  four  miles 
in  8m.  30s.,  with  an  infinitesiu:al  fraction,  two  of  them  falling 
lame,  and  the  weather  being  extremely  bad  throughout,  and 


360  THE    IIOKSE. 

against  speed.  Considering  all  things,  the  weight  they  carried, 
and  the  fact  that  none  of  them  were  above  third  or  fourth-rate 
horses,  the  average  is  creditable,  and  looks  little  like  degeneracy. 

If  third  and  fourth-rates  can  average  8m.  30s.,  with  154  lbs. 
on  their  backs,  what  would  lirst-rates,  such  as  Plenipotentiary, 
HarkaAvay,  Euphrates,  Yenison,  Catherina,  Beeswing,  Alice 
Hawthorn,  Surplice,  Flying  Dutchman,  and  such  cracks,  have 
done  with  99  lbs.,  the  weight  they  would  have  carried,  on  the 
ITorthern  courses,  at  their  ages  ?  Something,  to  reason  only  by 
the  fairest  analogy,  not  very  easy  to  be  beaten,  as  a  child  might 
answer.  One,  Skirmisher,  he  rode  three  heats,  making  bad  time 
enough,  averaging  only  9m.  3s.,  but  it  should  be  observed,  that 
he  was  the  last  horse  ridden  when  the  match  was  won,  and 
the  rider,  beside  that  he  had  no  occasion  to  hurry,  in  all  proba- 
bility pretty  well  tired. 

The  hero  of  the  day,  however,  was  Tranby,  by  Blacklock, 
who  performed  four  heats,  in  the  following  gallant  style: — 
First,  8.10  ;  second,  8 ;  third,  8.19  ;  fourth,  8.50.  Total  of  six- 
teen miles,  under  154  lbs.,  33.19 ;  which  was,  and  justly  was, 
considered  prodigious  proof  of  bottom  and  courage. 

Tranby  was  subsequently  imported  to  America,  solely  on 
account  of  his  performance  in  this  very  match,  as  being  consid- 
ered precisely  the  horse  to  get  four-milers.  He  proved,  how- 
ever, a  source  of  disappointment,  for  few  of  his  stock  did  any 
thing  of  consequence,  and  none  proved  superior.  The  same 
thing  has  occurred  with  other  celebrated  horses,  as  has  been 
instanced  befoi-e,  in  the  cases  of  Catton  in  England,  and  Chateau 
Margaux  in  this  country,  neither  of  which  produced  descend- 
ants worthy  of  their  great  renown.  Chateau,  however,  had 
served  two  hundred  mares  in  a  single  season,  before  his  impor- 
tation, and  I  doubt  not  that  his  vigor  was  affected  by  this  ille- 
gitimate excess. 

We  will  now  view  this  subject  in  another  light,  which,  I 
think,  confutes  yet  more  conclusively  the  idea  alluded  to  above, 
and  which  "  Cecil,"  from  whom  I  quote  the  following,  puts  with 
great  plausibility  and  force.     He  is  writing  of  the  year  1852 : — 

"  According  to  the  racing  Calendar,  and  other  periodicals, 
there  are  one  hundred  and  seven  stallions.  Some  of  these 
ought  not  to  be  used  in  the  stud,  because  they  are  possessed  of 


PROGRESS    EN    BREEDING. 


361 


infirmities  likely  to  be  inherited  by  their  progeny  ;  but  their 
number  is  not  so  great  as  might  be  imagiried,  and  to  individual- 
ize them  would  be  impolitic.  It  must  be  understood,  there  are 
many  other  stallions,  in  all  probability  more  than  a  similar 
number,  of  inferior  character,  whose  services  are  confined  to 
rural  districts,  where  they  are  patronized  by  farmers,  which  are 
not  included  in  this  estimate,  numbers  of  which  would  not  pass 


lowed  fco  perpetuate  their  species  among  any  classes ;  but  they 
are  seldom  advertised  beyond  their  respective  localities,  and  are 
still  more  rarely  the  progenitors  of  thoroughbred  stock.  From 
the  number  of  stallions  already  enumerated,  about  half  the 
foals  of  the  year  are  the  ofispring  of  thirty  sires,  favorites  on 
account  of  their  superior  lineage,  their  successful  j)erformances 
on  the  turf,  or  honorable  distinction  in  the  stud. 

"  The  following  table  supports  proof  of  the  progress  made 
in  the  speculation  of  breeding,  by  giving  the  number  of  races 
won  by  the  stock  of  fourteen  horses  of  celebrity,  in  the  years 
1825  and  1852,"  the  interval  being  a  trifle  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century. 


1825. 


Comus, 
FUho  da  Puta, 
Phantom,  . 
Ardrossan,     . 
Catton,      , 
Rubens, 
Whalebone, 
Whisker, 
Blacklock. 
Bourbon,     . 
Partisan, 
Soothsayer, 
Walton, 
Octavian,  . 


1852. 

Lanercost, 

.  35 

Birdcatcher,  . 

.       29 

Touchstone, 

.  26 

Venison, 

.       20 

Cotherstone,      . 

.         .  17 

Faugh  a  Ballagh,   . 

.       15 

Orlando,    .         .         .         . 

.   13 

Slane,    .... 

.       13 

Don  John, 

.  12 

Bay  Middleton,      . 

.       12 

Epirus,      .         .         .         . 

.   11 

Pantaloon,     . 

.       10 

Melbourne, 

.  10 

Alarm,  .... 

9 

"  Thus  we  find,  that  in  the  former  years  there  were  168,  and 
in  the  latter  232  winners,  the  progeny  of  an  equal  number  of 
horses.  Surely  this  aifords  an  argument  in  favor  of  the  stout- 
ness and  constitution  of  horses  of  modern  days." 


362  THE    UOKSE. 

It  is  not  easy  in  the  United  States  to  obtain  full  statistics  of 
tliis  nature,  owing  to  the  vast  extent  of  territory  over  which 
the  race-meetings  are  scattered,  that  extent  yearly  increasing, 
and  the  great  number  of  courses  and  Jockey  Clubs  existing, 
all  independent  each  of  the  other,  which  render  it  a  work  of 
endless  toil  to  hunt  up  the  numbers  of  winners  got  by  any  par- 
ticular stallion,  or  number  of  stallions ;  I  have  been  so  fortu- 
nate, iiowever,  as  to  fall  upon  the  following  facts  concerning 
Medoc,  a  horse  of  very  fair  and  honest,  though  not  first-rate, 
running  reputation  in  this  country,  in  1833,  and  shall  presently 
proceed  to  give  similar  statements  concerning  others  of  our 
most  distinguished  stallions. 

Medoc  begot,  in  the  three  years  1838,  '39  and  '40,  respec- 
tively, 18, 48,  and  49  winners,  at  all  distances,  from  one  to  four- 
mile  heats,  and  in  the  latter  year  thirty-three  of  his  get  won  64 
races,  ran  306  miles,  and  won  $26,000. 

But  to  return  to  "  Cecil's  "  observations  on  the  comparative 
stoutness  of  ancient  and  modern  English  racers. — "  In  the 
first  portion,"  he  proceeds,  "  of  these  remarks,  it  was  mentioned 
that  an  opinion  has  been  promulgated  with  much  industry,  and 
supported  with  equivalent  zeal,  that  our  horses  have  degen- 
erated, compared  with  those  of  our  ancestors,  in  stoutness  or 
endurance  in  running  a  distance ;  that  they  are  incapable  of 
bearing  fatigue ;  that  they  are  deficient  in  constitutional  stam- 
ina, the  ability  to  carry  weight,  and  that  they  are  subject  to 
hereditary  diseases,  especially  roaring.  In  evidence  of  these 
arguments,  the  performances  of  two  horses,  worthies  of  ancient 
da'te,  the  one  called  Black  Chance,  the  other  the  Carlisle  Geld- 
ing, have  been  extolled  in  the  w^armest  terms.  To  arrive  at 
correct  conclusions,  the  most  satisfactory  coui-se  will  be  that  of 
making  comparisons,  from  indisputable  data,  between  the  per- 
formances of  the  horses  said  to  have  possessed  superiority  over 
their  descendants.  The  mere  declaration  of  opinion,  unaccom- 
panied by  proof,  is  not  sufficient  on  this  occasion.  For  the 
sake  of  brevity,  and  to  render  each  item  capable  of  ready  com- 
parison, a  tabular  form  is  chosen,  in  which  the  performances  of 
the  most  celebrated  horses  of  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  are  placed  in  juxtaposition  with  an  equal  number  of 
more  recent  date.     The  selection  of  the  Cariisle  Gelding  and 


SUPERIORITY    OF    MODERN    RACERS. 


363 


Black  Chance  is  suggested,  in  consequence  of  their  having  been 
bronght  forward  as  specimens  of  snperioritj  over  any  horses  of 
the  modern  days." 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  table  alluded  to,  and  here  subjoined, 
that  the  five  modern  horses  have  in  every  respect  the  advan- 
tage. They  began  to  train  from  two  to  four  years  younger ; 
they  ran  more  races,  and  more  miles,  and — with  one  exception — 
they  saw  more  years  service  on  the  turf,  than  the  worthies  of 
the  olden  time. 

This,  added  to  the  above  record  of  stock,  ought  to  settle  the 
question. 


Si 

ft 

§ 
1 

1' 

1 

.9^ 

a  ^ 

=1 

2 

1 

r 

2^. 

OB 

1' 

Carlisle  Gelding... 

Cinderwench 

Black  Chance 

Arthur  O'Bradley. 

5 
unkVn 
5 
5 
6 

3 
3 

2 
2 
2 

25 
13 
26 
15 

4 

42 

46 
40 
16 
79 

9 
9 
5 
10 
6 

57 
35 
44 
5 
98 

34 
22 
30 
25 
10 

99 
81 
84 
21 
177 

160 

98 
172 
112 

36 

153| 
140A 

96 

51 
300 

68 
94 

40 

72 
38 

154-J- 

91f 

89i 

H 

283 

228 
192 
212 
184 

74 

308^ 
232 
185+ 
60+ 
583 

13* 
5 

lot 

4 
4 

10 
11 
10 
3 
10 

1731 
1735 
1746 
1749 
1749 

1828 
1834 
1835 
1837 
1841 

Euphrates 

Listen 

Independence  

Catherina 

"Persons  who  are  conversant  with  racing  are  well  aware 
that  it  is  impossible  to  form  decided  opinions  concerning  the 
superiority  of  horses,  without  running  them  in  public,  or  trying 
them  in  private,  with  the  most  scrupulous  exactness.  As  it  is 
impossible  to  form  positive  opinions  of  contemporaneous  horses 
till  they  have  been  tried,  it  would  be  ridiculous  to  hazard 
an  opinion  on  the  merits  of  horses  in  a  race  of  any  given  dis- 
tance of  the  early  part  of  the  last  century,  as  compared  with 
those  of  modern  days,  unless  there  appeared  to  be  a  vast  dis- 
parity between  them.  Considering  the  points  at  issue,  there  is 
no  difficulty  in  deciding  on  the  majority  of  those  qualities, 
which    give   evidence   of  stoutness,    endurance,    constitutional 


*  Did  not  run  in  the  years  1720,  1726,  or  1726. 
f  Did  not  run  in  1743. 


;^64  THE    HORSE. 

stamina,  aud  capability  of  bearing  fatigue.  As  to  hereditary 
diseases,  we  have  no  data  whatever  npon  wliich  any  opinion 
can  be  formed.  The  arguments  which  have  been  brought  for- 
ward in  favor  of  horses  of  olden  times,  with  the  Carlisle  Geld- 
ing, and  Black  Chance,  as  examples,  require  some  little  detail 
to  confute.  It  has  been  asserted  that  '  the  former  had  no  rival 
in  carrying  all  degrees  of  weights,  in  supporting  heats,  travel- 
ling, and  constant  running,  and  this  maintained  to  an  age  sel- 
dom heard  of.'  In  searching  the  calendars,  for  the  purpose  of 
forming  tables  of  perfoniiances,  it  was  found  that  this  horse  ran 
on  several  occasions  for  selling  stakes,  at  prices  varying  from 
eighty  to  twenty  sovereigns — his  value,  therefore,  was  not  high- 
ly estimated.  Many  persons  imagine  selling  stakes  are  modern 
inventions,  but  they  were  in  effect  in  the  early  part  of  the  last 
century.  On  four  occasions  only  this  horse  carried  twelve 
stone — 168  lbs.  In  a  general  way  he  carried  light  weights, 
varying  from  eight  stone  five  to  nine  stone — 112  to  117  lbs. 
Thirteen  of  his  engagements  were  matches,  and  all  racing-men 
know  full  well  that  winning  matches  depends  more  on  the  judg- 
ment of  the  match-maker,  than  the  intrinsic  goodness  of  the 
horse.  An  animal  that  has  been  often  beaten,  cannot  with  pro- 
priety be  aggrandized  by  the  title  of  '  unrivalled.' 

"  The  eulogist  of  the  Carlisle  Gelding  has  been  equally 
ardent  in  admiration  of  Black  Chance,  concerning  whom  he 
falls  into  great  discrepancies,  which,  however,  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  enumerate,  with  the  exception  of  one  mistake.  Among 
other  races  won  in  1740,  is  included  one  at  Oswestry,  where  he 
is  stated  to  have  carried  thirteen  stone — 182  lbs.  There  is  no 
record  in  the  Racing  Calendar  of  his  ever  carrying  more  than 
twelve  stone.  He  more  frequently  ran  with  ten,  and  sometimes 
with  only  nine. 

"'Arthur  O'Bradley,'  says  Mr,  N.  H.  Smith  in  his  well 
known  '  Observations  on  Breeding  for  the  Turf,'  '  won  as  many 
plates  as  almost  any  other  horse  ever  did,  at  both  high  and  low 
weights,  and  may  be  justly  said  to  be  the  best  horse  of  his 
time.'  He  is,  therefore,  a  fit  subject  for  comparison.  When 
his  performances  are  placed  against  those  of  Euphrates,  Liston, 
and  Independence,  they  fall  into  the  shade,  Babraham  is  in- 
troduced more  in  consequence  of  his  subsequent  worth  in  the 


VENISON.  365 

Btud,  than  for  his  performances  on  the  tni-f ;  in  the  former  ca- 
pacity he  was  far  distinguished  above  the  average  of  his  con- 
temporaries. This  also  serves  as  an  example,  of  which  there  are 
many  modern  instances,  that  a  horse  having  won  a  great  num- 
ber of  races  is  not  invariably  the  most  successful  in  his  pro- 
geny; a  horse  that  has  won  a  moderate  number  of  races, 
beating  known  good  ones,  is  generally  the  most  eligible  to  breed 
from.  It  is  very  generally  considered  that  training  horses  to 
run  at  so  early  an  age  as  two  or  even  three  years  old,  must  be 
injurious  to  them  ;  that  their  joints  and  sinews  wanting  maturi- 
ty, must  suffer  and  give  way,  consequently  their  racing  career 
must  be  abbreviated.  The  means  nowadays  adopted  with 
foals,  from  their  infancy,  are  calculated  very  essentially  to  ob- 
viate the  effects  of  early  training ;  the  kind  of  food  with  which 
they,  and  also  their  dams  are  supplied,  has  the  effect  of  produ- 
cing early  development,  added  to  the  almost  imperceptible 
gi-adations  of  exercise  which  they  are  required  to  perform ; 
these  are  subjects,  which  were  unknown  to  our  forefathers,  but 
they  will  be  more  fully  discussed  hereafter.  The  impression 
that  this  custom  shortens  the  term  of  a  horse's  racing  career, 
will  lose  ground  on  reference  to  the  table  already  given,  which 
shows  that  out  of  five  horses  of  modern  times  three  commenced 
their  running  at  two  years  old,  and  the  others  at  three. 

"  Their  continuance  on  the  turf,  fully  equals  that  of  their 
ancestors,  with  the  exception  of  Yenison,  whose  three-year-old 
performances  were  so  superlatively  excellent  as  to  render  him 
worthy  of  especial  notice.  At  that  age  he  won  twelve  races, 
many  of  them  at  long  distances,  including  five  king's  plates. 
Vans  and  railways  not  being  in  vogue,  he  travelled  on  foot  900 
miles  in  the  course  of  the  year  to  i^erform  his  engagements. 
He  ran  third  to  Bay  Middleton  and  Gladiator  for  the  Derby, 
and  I  perfectly  remember  the  remark  made  by  his  trainer,  Mr. 
John  Day,  on  the  morning  previous  to  the  race.  '  I  have  a  good 
horse,'  said  he,  '  and  it  must  be  a  very  good  one  to  beat  him.' 
Although  Bay  Middleton  proved  himself  a  better  horse  on  that 
occasion,  the  subsequent  running  of  Venison,  thoroughly  justified 
the  estimate  his  trainer  had  formed  of  him.  In  the  stud  he 
attained  still  greater  eminence,  being  the  sire  of  Alarm,  Cari- 
boo, the  Ugly  Buck,  Vatican,  Buckthorn,  Kingston,  Joe  Miller, 


366  THE    HORSE. 

Ticton,  besides  many  others  of  good  repute.  In  his  running  he 
evinced  the  most  indomitable  stoutness  and  soundness  of  consti- 
tution ;  inestimable  qualities,  which  he  transmitted  to  his  stock. 
He  died  when  rising  twenty  years  old,  in  December,  1852. 

"  Kegulus  is  worthy  to  be  mentioned  as  a  horse  of  great  re- 
pute in  his  time.  At  six  years  old  he  commenced  by  winning 
a  plate  of  £50.  In  the  same  year  he  won  six  king's  plates,  and 
walked  over  for  another  ;  when  seven  years  old,  he  again  won 
a  king's  plate,  Avhicli  finished  his  career  on  the  turf.  But  the 
career  of  Yenison  must  be  esteemed  more  brilliant,  especially 
if  his  age  be  taken  into  consideration.  Like  Babrahara,  Eegu- 
lus  was  the  progenitor  of  many  valuable  horses,  and  his  blood 
is  to  be  found  in  many  studs  of  the  present  day.  This  aflbrds 
another  illustration  of  the  remark  recently  made,  '  that  a  horse 
having  won  a  great  number  of  races  is  not  invariably  the  most 
successful  in  his  progeny.'  " 

Tlie  remarks,  which  follow  on  Euphrates,  Liston,  and  Inde- 
pendence, in  the  admirable  little  volume  from  which  I  have 
quoted,  though  full  of  information  and  practical  knowledge  and 
utility  to  the  breeder  of  racing  stock,  are  not  of  sufficient  in- 
terest in  this  point  of  the  question  to  render  it  advisable  to  ex- 
tract them ;  not  so  those  concerning  Catherina,  and  the  conclu- 
sions wliich  are  drawn  from  the  facts  adduced ;  for  all  these  are 
invaluable,  and  as  I  have  said,  to  my  mind  most  conclusive,  as 
to  the  superiority  of  the  modern  race-horse,  not  merely  as  a 
racer,  both  for  speed,  stoutness,  and  endurance  both  of  weight 
and  distance,  but  as  to  his  capability  of  getting  hunters,  carriage- 
horses,  cavalry-chargers ;  animals,  indeed,  of  every  quality,  ex- 
cept that  needed  for  the  heaviest  draught,  immeasurably  supe- 
rior, in  all  points  of  blood,  courage  and  service,  either  to  his 
own  immediate  ancestors,  or  to  their  common  progenitor,  the 
Oriental  horse,  whether  Turk,  Barb,  or  Arab  proper. 

"Although  last  on  the  list,  Catherina  stands  prominently 
conspicuous  for  her  performances.  When  the  ability  to  carry 
weight  is  brought  forward,  this  good,  honest  creature  must  be 
introduced  as  a  worthy  example.  She  ran  and  won,  on  many 
occasions,  with  twelve  stone — 168  lbs. — on  her  back,  and  de- 
feated Confederate  at  York,  each  carrying  fourteen  stone — 1J)6 
lbs. ;  and.  Confederate  having  previously  gained  distinction  at 


CATHEKINA.  367 

higli  weights,  Catherina's  victory  was  not  a  vague  honor  of 
beating  a  competitor  of  unknown  merit." 

It  is  a  matter  greatly  to  be  regretted,  that  the  distance  at 
which  this  prodigious  weight  was  carried  in  victoriously  by  a 
race-horse,  and  the  time  in  wiiich  the  feat  was  performed,  is  not 
given.  It  is  not  in  my  power  to  supply  either  deficiency.  Tlie 
latter,  probably,  cannot  be  supplied  ;  as,  except  in  extraor- 
dinary cases,  and  then  generally  by  American  sportsmen,  who 
chance  to  be  present  on  the  com-ses,  time  is  rarely  taken — or  so 
taken,  as  to  be  relied  on  for  its  correctness — ^in  English  races. 

This  and  the  irregular  length  of  the  principal  races,  as  the 
Leger,  Derby,  T.  Y.  C,  Beacon  Course,  Round  Course,  Good- 
wood-cup and  Drawing-room  Stakes  Courses,  none  of  which 
consist  of  a  certain  number  of  full  miles,  but  of  miles  and 
fractional  parts  of  a  mile,  render  all  comparison  between  the 
merits  of  English  and  American  horses  difficult  and  embarrass- 
ing, if  not  impossible. 

"  It  seldom  happens,"  Cecil  proceeds,  "  that  a  mare  which 
has  been  kept  in  training  many  years,  however  supenor  her 
performances,  has  conferred  the  same  high  character  on  her  pro- 
duce, and  as  yet  Catherina  is  not  an  exception.  Alecto,  her 
dam,  was  a  tolerably  good  mare,  but  by  no  means  first-rate. 
She  was  sold  at  four  years  old  by  Mr.  Houldsworth,  who  bred 
her,  and  her  subsequent  owner  confined  her  engagements  princi- 
pally to  running  for  country  plates,  very  much  in  fashion  at  the 
time ;  she  won  several  of  them,  but  never  beat  horses  of  high 
repute.  She  ran  frequently,  in  1827,  when  in  foal,  and  the 
result  was  a  colt  by  Banker,  which  was  never  trained.  In  1829 
she  missed  to  TThisker,  and  the  following  year  gave  birth  to  Ca- 
therina. This  circumstance  is  somewhat  remarkable,  for  it  very 
rarely  occurs  that  mares  having  been  trained  and  raced  so  se- 
verely ever  produce  foals,  until  they  have  enjoyed  at  least  five 
or  six  years  repose ;  it  confirms  the  assertion,  that  there  are  no 
positive  rules  for  the  guidance  of  breeders.  The  list  of  horses 
which  have  gained  celebrity,  by  very  frequent  running,  may 
be  brought  forward  to  the  present  day  with  good  effect,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  Catherina,  their  performances  are  equal  to  those 
already  noticed.  Cloth  worker,  Rataplan,  Virago,  cum  multis 
aliis^''  in  which  distinguished  position  I  shall  take  it  on  myself 


THE    nOKSE. 


to  inchide  Beeswing  and  Alice  Hawthorn,  "  claim  distinguished 
position  on  the  scroll  of  fame.  When  comparing  the  perform- 
ances of  race-horses,  it  is  not  customary  to  compute  the  aggre- 
gate distances  which  they  may  run  in  their  various  i-aces,  and 
with  contemporaries  contending  for  races,  for  which  the  distances 
are  nearly  equal,  it  would  afford  no  criterion  ;  but  in  this  case 
it  is  a  different  affair.  The  object  is  to  determine  whether  the 
allegation  is  -well  founded,  that  the  horses  of  the  olden  time  were 
superior  to  those. of  the  present  day  in  point  of  stoutness,  sound- 
ness, and  constitutional  stamina,  and  the  ability  to  endure  fre- 
quent running.  A  reference  to  the  table  of  performances  al- 
ready given  sets  that  question  at  rest.  The  total  number  of 
races  won  by  horses  of  modern  times  is  also  greatly  in  excess,  and 
taking  these  two  circumstances  into  consideration,  the  palm  of 
merit  for  soundness,  capability  for  frequent  running,  and  stout- 
ness, must  be  awarded  to  them.  Every  owner  of  Tace-horses 
and  every  trainer  hnows  full  well^  that  frequently  running 
moderate  distances  tries  the  legs,  and  detects  infirmities  iriore  un- 
equivocally, thorn,  occasionally  running  long  distances.  It  is  a 
very  general  remark,  that  the  old-fashioned  distances  of  four 
miles  have  been  reduced.  That  is  true  ;  but  they  have  not  all 
been  so  materially  shortened  as  not  to  afford  good  horses  op- 
portunities for  distinction.  It  cannot  be  denied  but  that  there 
are  a  vast  number  of  races  at  short  distances,  yet  there  are  also 
many  two  miles  and  upwards,  and  many  three  miles.  The  vic- 
tories of  the  best  horses  of  the  present  day  are  most  decisive  at 
long  distances,  and  they  in  turn  passing  from  the  course  to  the 
stud,  still  maintain  their  position  as  favorites.  Two  miles  will 
determine  the  lasting  powers  of  a  horse,  if  the  pace  be  true  from 
end  to  end.  It  has  been  clearly  proved  that  tlie  horses  of  mod- 
ern times  are  superior  to  those  of  our  forefathers  on  the  points 
already  named  ;  but  whether  our  best  racers  could  beat  Flying 
Childers,  Regulus,  Eclipse,  Highflyer,  and  other  worthies  of 
that  time,  is  a  question  that  cannot  be  decided  ;  neither  does  it 
appear  very  important  for  practical  purposes.  On  the  capability 
of  horses  running  distances,  there  are  some  mistaken  notions 
touching  the  customs  of  our  forefathers,  and  from  the  fact  of 
their  races  in  general  being  four  miles,  it  is  conceived  that  their 
horses  were  more  capable  of  running  those  distances,  than  those 


INFERIORITY    OP^   THE    OLD    RACERS.  6b\) 

■we  now  possess.  It  is  an  inference,  but  nothing  more.  When 
their  horses  ran  their  four-mile  heats,  they  did  not  on  all  occa- 
sions go  their  best  pace  throughout ;  and  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  the  majority  of  the  races  which  were  run,  in  1754,  were 
80  well  calculated  to  try  the  lasting  powers  of  horses,  as  many 
of  the  races  which  took  place  in  1854." 

Thus  far  "  Cecil,"  and  thus  far  conclusively.  I,  however, 
aspire  to  go  farther,  and  contend,  that — although  it  be  not  sus- 
ceptible of  mathematical  demonstration  that  Eclipse,  Flying 
Childers,  Regulus,  Highflyer  and  others  were  not  faster  than 
the  best  modern  horses — there  is  no  earthly  reason  for  suppos- 
ing that  they  were  so,  but  rather  the  reverse.  Dismissing,  as 
the  merest  vulgar  fables,  the  mile-in-a-minute  stories,  I  have 
already  shown  that  the  other  recorded  time-trials  of  Flying 
Childers,  even  if  granted  to  be  true,  are  not  so  marvellous  or  so 
far  beyond  the  reach  of  modern  racers,  as  seems  generally  to  be 
held. 

But  these  were  only  secret  trials,  and  reliance  cannot  be  placed 
upon  them.  In  fact,  it  is  exceedingly  doubtful  to  me,  whether  in 
the  days  of  Flying  Childers,  there  were  watches  in  existence  by 
which  seconds  could  be  stopped  and  counted  with  accuracy.  At 
all  events,  it  is  clear  that  the  whole  reputation  of  these  so-styled 
phenomena,  rests  on  their  extraordinary  superiority  to  all  the 
horses  of  their  own  day.  But  the  moment  that  it  is  established, 
as  "  Cecil "  has,  I  think,  clearly  established  it,  that  the  general 
run  of  horses  of  that  day  were  iniinitely  inferior  to  the  general  run 
of  horses  of  this,  in  all  the  points  wherein  they  most  strenuously 
claimed  superiority ;  the  ease  with  which  they  were  beaten  by 
the  few  true  racers  of  the  day  is  readily  accounted  for — and  the 
iact  that  they  were  easily  beaten  confers  no  such  extraordinary 
renown,  nor  presupposes  the  necessity  of  any  such  superior 
powers  in  the  victors. 

Again,  as  to  the  four-mile-heat  races,  I  deny  utterly  the 
superiority  of  the  horse  of  the  olden  time  to  the  modern,  in  this 
species  of  sport,  as  I  do  in  all  the  other  qualities  necessary  to 
constitute  a  first-rate  animal. 

It  is  not  only  an  inference,  and  nothing  more ;  but  it  is  an 
nference  resting  on  nothing,  and  contrary  to  all  analogy. 

It  will  not  be  denied,  that  in  the  United  States  four-mile- 
VoL.  I.— 24 


370  THE    llUKSE. 

heat  racing  has  been  practised  to  a  greater  extent,  at  greater 
recoi'ded  and  jjositivehj  estohUahed  sjpeed^  and  with  greater 
proof  of  endurance  of  fatigue,  than  it  ever  has  been  elsewhere, 
either  in  the  olden  time  or  in  the  present  day. 

IS'ow,  the  American  four-mile-heat  racer  is,  in  fact,  nothing 
more  than  an  unmixed  descendant  of  these  very  same  worthies 
of  the  olden  day,  and  next  akin  to,  where  he  is  not  actually  the 
son  of,  some  one  or  otlier  of  these  despised  modern  horses  of 
England,  which,  it  is  absurdly  said,  are  degenerate. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  same  inference  is  here  deducible  as 
before,  namely,  that  because  four-mile-heat  races  are  run  in 
America  and  are  not  run  in  England,  therefore,  the  American 
race-horse  is,  and  the  English  is  not,  capable  of  running  four- 
mile-heat  races. 

I  reply,  that  this,  also,  is  an  inference  resting  on  nothing, 
and  contrary  to  analogy,  and  I  proceed  to  show,  wherefore ; 

Twenty  years,  or  over,  when  lirst  I  landed  in  the  United 
States,  timing  being  at  that  time  wholly  unknown  in  Great 
Britain,  it  was  asserted  and  universally  believed  in  this  country, 
that,  because  the  English  did  not  time  their  horses  on  the  turf, 
the  English  horses  could  not  bear  timing;  which  would,  it  was 
argued,  disclose  their  inferiority,  in  point  of  speed,  to  the  race- 
horse of  this  country. 

After  awhile,  a  few  American  gentlemen  accustomed  to 
timing,  and  having  stop-watches  of  the  best  construction,  in  a 
word  "  to  the  manner  born,"  kej)t  the  time  of  a  St.  Leger  and 
Derby  or  two.  and  then  the  fact  came  out,  that,  on  several  of 
these  occasions,  the  English  horses  ran  quicker  under  heavy 
weights  than  the  best  American  horses  under  light  ones. 

Gradually,  and  reluctantly,  it  came  to  be,  and  has  of  late 
been  usually  admitted,  that  the  time  of  the  best  English  horses, 
under  heavy  weights  and  at  short  distances,  is  quite  equal, 
if  not  superior,  to  that  of  the  best  horses  here.  For  example, 
in  Yol.  XL,  American  Turf  Register,  I  find  the  following- 
passage  ; 

"  Nothing  is  so  interesting  to  American  turfmen  as  to  ascer- 
tain the  exact  time  in  which  the  English  race-horse  performs  a 
given  distance.  We  have  a  memorandum  before  us,  made  by 
an  American  gentleman,  who  attended   the   recent  Liverpool 


ENGLISH    RACE    COTJESES.  371 

Jn]j  meeting,  in  regard  to  the  time  made  by  Lord  "Westminster's 
Sleiglit-ot'-Hand,  by  Pantaloon,  who  won  the  Tradesman's  Cup 
this  year,  beating  Charles  XII.,  Criiiskeen,  Deception,  and  thir- 
teen others.  The  race  was  run  on  the  15th  of  July,  the  day  was 
line,  not  at  all  warm,  and  the  course  inline  order.  The  distance 
was  two  miles  exactly^  and  Sleight-of-Hand,  a  four-year-old,  and 
carrying  109  lbs,  performed  it  in  3m.  36s. !  The  race  is  described 
as  a  very  splendid  one,  the  winner,  Sampson,  and  Charles  XII., 
"being  so  closely  handicapped  that  Sleight-of-Hand  won  only 
by  a  neck,  Sampson  beating  Charles  XII.  for  the  second  place 
nearly  hy  a  head.  But  the  most  wonderful  circumstance  yet 
remains  to  be  told  ;  Charles  XII.,  who  came  so  near  winning, 
is  himself  but  a  four-year-old,  and  yet  carried  125  lbs. — only 
a  pound  less  than  an  aged  horse  carries  on  the  Union  Course ! 

"  The  Derby  handicap,  run  on  the  same  day,  was  won  by 
Lord  George  Bentinck's  Capote,  by  Velocipede ;  he,  3  years 
old,  with  93  lbs.  on  his  back,  ran  once  round  and  a  distance, 
called  a  mile,  in  one  minute  and  forty-seven  seconds.  Tliis,  if 
the  distance  be  accurately  measured,  it  would  not  be  impossible 
for  us  to  beat ;  but  the  performance  of  Charles  XII.  is  really 
wonderful."— Ed.  Am.  T.  R. 

In  reference  to  the  measurement  of  the  English  courses,  1 
quote  again  from  the  same  work,  vol.  xi.,  p.  213,  a  writer,  under 
the  signature  D.,  for  whom  the  Editor  vouches  as  "  a  practical 
breeder  and  turfman  of  thirty  years  standing,"  and  as  one  than 
whom  "•  no  gentleman  in  the  Union  is  more  familiar  with  the 
diiferent  strains  of  blood  which  have  appeared  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic,"  testifies  as  follows  ; 

"  Your  correspondent  doubts  the  speed  of  English  horses, 
and  talks  of  the  reputed  length  of  courses.  On  that  subject  I 
would  observe  to  him,  that  the  course  at  Doncaster  has  been 
accurately  measured  in  the  presence  of  Americans,  and  some  of 
the  fjistest  races  have  been  timed  by  our*  countrymen,  with 
watches  made  expressly  for  the  purpose.  The  same  remark  ap- 
plies to  ^«V?^;'e6,  near  Liverpool,"  the  course,  be  it  observed,  over 
which  the  races  last  named  were  run  ! 

*  It  may  not  be  amiss,  nor  will  be  improper,  here  to  specify  two  well-known  and 
thorough  sportsmen,  Messrs.  Frank  Corbyn,  of  Virginia,  and  Boardman  of  Hunt's 
Mills,  as  timers  of  English  races. 


372  THE    nORSE. 

"  A  jjersonal  view  of  the  English  horses,  and  of  English  ra- 
cing, has  convinced  me  that  their  horses  have  more  speed  than 
ours,  and  greater  capacity  for  carrying  weight.  Now,  these 
things  admitted,  and  I  think  no  well  informed  man  will  deny  it, 
there  is  little  reason  to  suspect  that  they  have  less  game  and 
bottom,  as  they  are  descended  from  the  same  root,  and  bred 
with  the  greatest  care  and  attention." 

The  question  of  superior  speed,  has  been  apparently  given 
up.  Another  writer,  who  concedes  the  fact  of  greater  speed  in 
England  at  high  weights,  inquires  if  the  diflerence  may  not  be 
attributed  to  the  superiority  of  the  turf  courses  in  England. 
Being  familiar  with  most  of  the  race-courses  in  England,  and  all 
the  Northern  courses  of  the  United  States,  I  should  reply  that 
I  greatly  doubt  the  superiority  of  the  turf  course,  for  the  making 
of  good  time,  as  a  general  rule,  though  it  perhaps  is  less  hard 
upon  the  feet. 

When  a  turf  course  is  in  its  most  perfect  condition,  which 
is  not  once  in  a  hundred  times,  it  is,  perhaps,  in  all  respects 
more  favorable  to  pace  than  any  American  course  in  the  same 
condition.  But  when  the  ground  is  thoroughly  dry  and  baked, 
and  the  grass,  as  I  have  often  seen  it,  burnt  till  it  is  as  slippery, 
almost,  as  ice ;  or  when,  as  is,  I  might  say,  generally  the  case 
under  the  weeping  skies  of  England,  the  grass  course  is  fetlock 
deep  in  stiff  mud,  covered  with  a  tenacious  sod,  it  is  worse  than 
any  thing  I  have  ever  seen  on  any  course,  even  Camden,  in  the 
United  States.  I  am  certain  that  I  have  seen  Knavesmire,  at 
York,  and  from  the  hill  to  the  Ked-house  and  thence  half  way 
home,  at  Doncaster,  ten  seconds,  at  least,  worse  in  the  mile, 
than  ever  I  saw  any  part  of  any  race-course  on  this  side  the 
water. 

I  do,  however,  believe  that  there  is  a  manifest  advantage, 
especially  for  lengthy  horses,  in  the  larger  size  and  less  abrupt 
turns  of  the  English  race-courses.  I  have  seen  that  noble  race- 
horse, Mingo,  who,  for  shapes  was  almost  my  beau  ideal  of  the 
animal,  suffer  repeatedly  from  being  pulled  out  of  his  stride,  in 
order  to  get  round  the  awkward  short  turns  of  the  Union  Course, 
and  I  have  not  a  doubt  that  either  on  the  Beacon,  which  is 
straight,  or  on  the  Goodwood  Course,  which  is  arranged  in  long 
sweeping  curves  without  any  sudden  corner,  he  or  any  other 


GAifE    OF   ENGLISH    HORSES.  373 

good  great  horse  would  improye,  other  things  alike,  on  his 
American  time. 

Again,  I  am  decidedly  of  opinion  that  the  use  of  heavy 
weights,  as  on  the  British  Turf,  is  of  as  much  profit  as  loss  to  the 
horses  ridden,  in  allowing  the  riders  to  be  men^  who  can  control 
the  animals,  restrain  or  call  out  their  powers  to  the  utmost,  and 
who  in  head,  heart,  seat  and  liand,  are  horsemen  to  perfection, 
instead  of  children^  who,  half  the  time,  have  as  much  as  they 
can  do  to  hang  on  by  the  reins,  and  are  run  away  with  from  the 
score  to  the  winning-post,  utterly  unable  either  to  judge  of  the 
pace  they  are  going,  or  to  regulate  it  if  they  were. 

But  in  regard  to  the  bottom  of  English  horses,  I  desire  to 
point  out  first,  that  it  has  already  been  shown,  sujyra^  p.  359,  that 
a  number  of  extremely  indifferent  race-horses  did  make,  under 
enormous  weight,  as  we  regard  it  here — 154  lbs. — very  respect- 
able time ;  and  one  horse* — by  no  means  above  a  third-rate 
according  to  his  previous  character,  or  unusually  powerful  or 
like  a  weight  carrier — made  very  excellent  time  in  the  Osbal- 
deston  match,  as  admitted  by  the  Americans  who  purchased 
him  after  the  I*fewmarket  Houghton  meeting  of  1831. 

Again,  I  quote  from  the  American  Sporting  Magazine,  Vol. 
XI.,  p.  304,  from  the  article  of  a  very  sound  and  brilliant  writer, 
who  took  ground  against  a  strange  fallacy  broached  at  that  time, 
viz.,  that  English  and  American  thoroughbreds  had  degenerated 
owing  to  their  being  too  thoroughbred. 

"  We  are  entirely  too  much,"'  says  he,  "  in  the  habit  of  under- 
rating the  bottom  of  the  English  horses — when  the  truth  is,  the 
thoroughbred  of  both  countries  are  almost  the  same ;  but  they  have 
attended  more  to  the  purity  oi pedigree,  speed,  and  a  capacity  to 
carry  weight.  N'ow,  I  opine  this  system  is  not  calculated  to 
lessen  his  lastingness  ;  at  the  same  time,  I  must  aver  that  the 
possession  of  great  speed  is  by  no  means  an  indication  of  want 

of  game,  and  if  '  P ,'  will  try  the  experiment  of  running  a 

slow  game  horse  after  a  fleet  thoroughbred,  he  will  hereafter  be 
willing  to  cross  with  some  strong  speedy  horse,  though  he  may 
have  broken  down  A'ouno;. 


*  Tranby  was  not  comparable  in  power,  any  more  than  in  speed,  to  Lottery, 
Plenipotentiary,  or  twenty  others. 


374  TITE    HORSE. 

"  A  word,  on  the  subject  of  game  in  the  English  horses,  and 
I  will  close  this  piece. 

"  At  the  last  Doncaster  races,  a.  d.  1839,  Opera,  sister  to 
Burletta  by  Actaeon,  on  Tuesday  won  the  Cleveland  stakes,  one 
mile,  16  subscribers.  On  Wednesday  she  won  the  Corporation 
plate,  two-mile  heats,  winning  the  iii*st  and  third  heats  ;  and  on 
Friday,  two  days  after  only,  she  won  the  town  plate,  two-mile 
heats,  at  four  heats,  winning  the  second  heat,  the  third  heat  being 
a  dead,  heat  between  her  and  Humphrey,  and  then  won  the 
fourth  heat,  the  last  mile  of  which  she  ran  in  Im.  49s.,  with  119 

lbs,  on  her,  she  then  four  years  old.     Now  if  '  P '  will  not 

admit  tliis  to  be  a  game  nag,  lie  must  be  hard  to  satisfy.  Opera 
is  a  good  nag,  but  by  no  means  at  the  head  of  tlie  English  Turf. 
Her  performance,  there,  is  no  marvel ;  and  perhaps  in  Cai'olina 
they  might  place  a  low  estimate  on  it,  but  I  am  certain  that 
Crusader  would  have  found  himself  in  bad  company  with  her. 
Each  heat  was  well  contested — the  last  mile  of  the  second  heat 
was  run  in  Im.  48s. ;  the  last  mile  in  third,  in  Im.  50s. ;  and  the 
last  mile  in  the  fourth  heat  in  Im.  49s. — timed  by  an  American 
now  in  this  country.  The  shape  of  the  course  enables  a  spec- 
tator to  time  the  last  mile  correctly." 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that,  in  1826,  I  saw  myself  the  very 
counterpart  of  this  race,  run  for  the  same  Corporation  plate,  the 
account  of  which  I  take  from  "  The  Annals  of  Sporting  "  of  that 
year,  but  I  myself  remember  the  circumstances  as  if  they  were 
but  of  yesterday. 

Purity,  the  winner  of  the  town  plate,  had  on  Wednesday 
won  the  all-age  stakes,  St.  Leger  Course, — two  miles,  less  312 
yards — in  3m.  37s.,  carrying  107  lbs.  at  four  years  old.  The 
all-age  stakes  is  a  selling  stake.  The  winner  liable  to  be  claimed 
at  200  sovereigns,  but  not  deliverable  until  the  end  of  the  meet- 
ing. I  mention  this  to  show  precisely  how  near  to  the  head  of 
the  ifwrf  Purity  stood,  and,  as  a  consequence.  Opera  likewise. 

Indeed  it  is  notorious  to  every  English  turfman  that  no  owner 
will  enter  a  valuable  horse  or  mare  for  a  race  which  takes  so 
much  out  of  the  animal,  while  the  gain — £100 — is  so  small,  and 
the  renown,  to  be  got  by  beating  inferior  horses,  nothing. 

The  race  in  1826  was  as  follows.     Unfortunately  no  time 


PUKITY    AJND    BEOWNLOCK.  375 

was  kept ;  but  this  detracts  in  nothing  from  the  stanchness  or 
capacity  to  repeat  in  the  horses. 

One  hundred  pound  plate  for  three  and  four  years  old.     Three,  7  st.  5  lbs.— 103  lbs. ;  and  four, 
8  St.  7  lbs.— 119  lbs.    Maiden  colts  allowed  2  lbs.,  and  maiden  fillies  3  lbs.    Two-mile  heats. 

Lord  Kelburn's  ch.  f.  Purity,  by  Octavia,  4  years,  .        .        .  4    3    10    1 

Mr.  Richards'  bl.  c.  Brmcnlock,  4  yrs 16202 

Sir  J.  Byng's  ch.  c.  Thale.%  by  Tramp,  4  yrs 5    10    3    3 

Sir  Wm.  Milner's  b.  c.  by  Tramp,  3  yrs 6    2    3       dr. 

Mr.  Eidsdale"s  br.  c.  by  Oiseau,  3  yrs 3    4    0       dr. 

Duke  of  Leeds"  bl.  c.  by  Crowcatcher,  3  yrs 2    5    dr. 

Each  heat  was  most  obstinately  contested,  and  a  vast  deal  of 
betting  between  Purity  and  Brownlock,  The  course  was  nearly 
deserted  before  the  contest  was  over,  the  deciding  heat  being 
absolutely  run  by  twilight. 

From  these  data — the  running,  I  mean,  in  Osbaldeston's  two 
hundred  mile  match,  and  that  in  the  two  minor  races  described 
above,  the  counterparts  of  which,  had  one  the  time  to  hunt  them 
Tip,  and  the  space  to  record  them,  might  be  reproduced  a  hun- 
dred times  from  the  annual  racing  calendars  of  Englisli  provin- 
cial meetings — I  deduce  this  fact,  and  challenge  denial  or  dis- 
proval,  that  English  thoroughbred  racers  of  inferior  grade  on 
the  Turf,  do  still  retain  the  capacity  to  run  long  heats  as  stoutly 
and  gamely  as  they  ever  did,  and  that  at  unusual  weights  and 
in  respectable  time. 

I  say  that  second  and  third-rate  horses,  horses  valued  at 
£200  and  under,  can  do  this ;  and  that  first-rate  horses,  valued 
at  £1,000  and  upwards,  cannot  do  it  at  all,  or  cannot  do  it  as 
gamely  and  in  better  time  than  their  own  inferiors,  is  simply  to 
talk  nonsense. 

Again  ;  to  say  that  a  horse,  which  can  run  sixteen  miles  in 
four  four-mile  heats,  in  33m.  19s.,  with  154  pounds  on  his  back, 
could  not  run  the  same  number  of  heats  of  the  same  length,  in 
much  better  time,  with  only  114  pounds  on  his  back,  is  absurd. 

So  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  a  much  better,  stouter,  fleeter,  in 
every  way  superior  animal,  could  not  run  the  same  race,  under 
the  same  conditions,  in  better  time  than  its  inferior.  In  other 
words,  that  Tranby,  with  154  pounds  on  his  back,  coidcl  run 
sixteen  miles  at  four-mile  heats  in  such  time,  but  that  Fleur-de-lis, 
or  Glencoe,  or  Plenipotentiary,  could  not,  or  could  not,  with  that 


376 


THE    HORSE. 


or  40  pounds  less  weight  on  their  backs,  beat  the  time  in  a  can- 
ter, at  1,000  to  1,  and  no  takers. 

Tlie  idea  of  sustaining  such  a  paradox  is  idle.  "  Cecil  "  has 
well  stated  that  a  horse  which  can  run  with  eight  stone  on  his 
back  can  run  with  nine,  against  equal  horses  equally  weighted, 
unelss  he  be  such  a  weed  as  ought  not  to  run  at  all. 

But  no  one  ever  doubted,  I  presume,  who  was  capable  of 
forming  an  opinion,  that  every  horse  which  is  capable  of  carry- 
ing nine  stone  is  capable  of  carrying  eight  a  good  deal  faster. 

I  hold  it,  therefore,  proved,  as  I  have  stated  above,  that  the 
inference^  that  the  modern  English  horse  cannot  run  distances 
equally  well  with  his  own  ancestors,  or  with  the  modern  Amer- 
ican horse,  is  not  only  a  mere  inference,  but  an  inference  con- 
trary to  analogy. 

There  is  yet  another  argument,  and  one  yet  stronger,  which 
I  have  to  produce  on  this  point,  viz. 

In  later  years  the  American  time  of  four-mile-heat  races  has 
immeasurably  improved. 

In  later  years  the  importation  of  modern  English  racing 
stallions  has  immeasurably  increased,  and  the  stock  of  these 
imported  stallions  are  now  running  every  where  on  terms  of 
equality  with  the  progeny  of  the  best  native  sires. 

And,  to  borrow,  for  the  last  time,  from  the  writer  before 
quoted  in  the  American  Sporting  Magazine,  Yol.  XI.,  p.  242, 
"  On  a  fair  investigation  of  all  the  races  in  our  country,  it  will 
be  found  that  the  imported  horses,  and  the  colts  of  imported 
horses,  have  won  a  full  share  of  all  the  purses,  and  at  all  dis- 
tances, including  four-mile  heats.  They  are  not  better  than 
our  own  thoroughbreds,  but  they  are  equally  good,  and  more 
generally  cross  well." 

Tliis,  be  it  observed,  is  not  my  opinion,  but  that  of  an  intel- 
ligent, well-known  American  breeder  and  turfman,  of  thirty 
years'  experience  on  the  turf.  His  opinion,  I  think,  moreover, 
will  be  fully  borne  out  by  the  tables  at  the  end  of  the  volume, 
which  I  have  with  great  labor  compiled  from  such  materials  as 
I  could  obtain,  on  the  plan  of  the  English  tables  above  quoted, 
of  the  number  of  winners  got  by  American  stallions  of  time  past 
and  present,  native  and  imported,  and  of  the  performances  of 
American  horses  born  of  native  and  imported  sires. 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THE  THOEOUGHBRED.  377 

These  show,  if  I  err  not  the  more  widely,  that  the  stock  of 
English  horses  do  their  work  at  long  distances  in  America,  with 
no  signs  of  degeneracy.  How  then  should  the  sires  be  degene- 
rate? 

Fortes  creantur  fortibus  et  bonis 
Est  in  juvencis,  est  in  equis  patrum 
Virtus,  nee  imbellem  feroces 
Progenerant  aquilje  columbam.  Horace. 

And  here,  having,  as  I  consider,  fully  shown  that  the  idea 
of  degeneracy  from  the  original  ancestry,  whether  on  the  part 
of  the  English  or  American  thoroughbred  horse  of  to-day,  is  an 
idle  and  absurd  fallacy  ;  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  not  only  is 
the  breed  the  very  best  breed  that  ever  has  existed  in  the  world, 
but  that  it  exists  to-day  in  greater  purity,  power,  vigor,  and 
efficiency  for  all  purposes  of  utility,  with  the  sole  exception  of 
heavy  draught,  than  it  ever  has  before — not  to  say  in  a  sphere 
immeasurably  increased,  and  in  numbers  infinitely  extended — 
I  will  pass  on  to  other  parts  of  my  subject,  and  endeavor  to 
show  how  we  may  continue  to  produce  him  of  the  highest  stand- 
ard, and  how  use  him  with  the  greatest  profit  and  j)leasure  to 
ourselves,  and,  as  in  duty  bound,  with  the  greatest  ease,  well- 
being  and  happiness  to  himself. 


ENGLISH  AND  AMERICAN  YIEWS 

OF  THB 

PAST   AJSTD   PRESENT   CONDITION   OF   THE   THOROUGHBRED  HORSE. 


PRESENT    SPEED   OF   THE   EACEHOKSE. 
Frmn,  Stonehenge. 

By  an  examination  of  the  racing  time-tables  as  recorded  of 
late  years,  it  will  be  seen  that  from  13i  to  14  seconds  per  furlong 
is  the  highest  rate  of  speed  attained  in  any  of  our  races,  above 
a  mile,  and  with  8  st.  Y  lbs.  carried  by  three-year-old  horses.  In 
1846,  Surplice  and  Cymba  won  the  Derby  and  Oaks,  each  run- 
ning the  distance  in  2m.  48s.,  or  exactly  14  seconds  per  furlong. 
This  rate  has  never  since  that  time  been  reached ;  the  Flying 
Dutchman  having,  however,  nearly  attained  it,  but  failing  by 
two  seconds — making  his  rate  14  seconds  and  one  sixth  per  fur- 
long. But  the  most  extraordinary  three-year-old  performance 
is  that  of  Sir  Tatton  Sykes  over  the  St.  Leger  Course,  1  mile,  6 
furlongs,  and  132  yards  in  length,  which  he  ran  in  3  minutes 
and  16  seconds,  or  at  a  rate  of  as  nearly  as  possible  13i  seconds 
per  furlong.  With  an  additional  year  and  the  same  weight,  this 
speed  has  been  slightly  exceeded  by  West  Australian,  even  over 
a  longer  course,  as  at  Ascot  in  1854,  when  he  defeated  Kingston 
by  a  head  only  ;  running  two  miles  and  four  furlongs  in  4m. 
and  278.,  or  as  nearly  as  possible  at  the  rate  of  13i  seconds  and 
one-third  per  furlong.  This  performance  is  the  best  in  modern 
days,  considering  the  weight,  the  age,  and  the  distance  ;  and  it 


FIEST   AUSTRALIAN.  379 

will  compare  very  favorably  with  the  often-quoted  exploit  of 
Childers  over  the  Beacon  Course  in  1Y21,  when,  being  six  years 
old,  he  beat  Almanzor  and  Brown  Betty,  carrying  9  st.  2  lbs., 
and  doing  the  distance  in  6m.  40s.,  or  at  the  rate  of  14  seconds 
and  one-third  per  furlong.  Thus,  allowing  him  his  year  for  the 
extra  mile  in  the  course,  and  for  the  21bs.  which  he  carried 
above  Kingston's  weight,  he  was  outdone  by  the  latter  horse 
at  Ascot  by  one  second  per  furlong,  and  likewise  by  West 
Australian  at  the  usual  allowance  for  his  age.  Again  ;  com- 
paring these  performances  on  the  English  Turf  with  the  recently 
lauded  exploits  of  the  American  horses,  it  will  be  found  that 
there  is  no  cause  for  the  fear  lest  our  antagonists  in  the  "  go- 
ahead  "  department  should  deprive  us  of  our  laurels.  On  the 
2d  of  April,  1855,  a  time-match  was  run  at  New  Orleans  be- 
tween Lecomte  and  Lexington,  both  four  years  old,  in  which 
the  latter,  who  won,  did  the  four  miles,  carrying  7  st.  5  lbs., 
in  7m.  19fs.,  or,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  13f  seconds  per  fur- 
long. This  is  considered  by  the  Americans  the  best  time  on 
record,  aud  is  undoubtedly  a  creditable  performance  ;  though 
when  the  light  weight  is  taken  into  account,  not  so  near  our 
best  English  time  as  would  at  first  sight  appear.  On  the 
14th  of  April,  Brown  Dick  and  Arrow  ran  three  miles  over 
the  same  course  in  5m.  28s.,  or  at  the  rate  of  13  seconds  and 
two-thirds  per  furlong;  the  former  a  three-year-old,  carrying 
6  St.  2  lbs.,  and  the  latter  five  years  old,  6  st.  12  lbs.  Thus  it 
will  appear  that  Kingston,  of  the  same  age  as  Arrow,  and 
carrying  9st.  instead  of  7  st.  12  lbs.,  ran  ^  miles  at  a  better 
rate  than  Arrow  did  his  3  miles,  by  one-third  of  a  second 
per  furlong.  And  it  has  been  shown  that  in  the  year  last 
past,  two  horses  exceeded  the  greatest  performance  of  the 
olden  times  by  a  second  per  furlong,  and  beat  the  best  Ame- 
rican time  of  modern  days  by  one-third  of  a  second  per  mile. 
The  assertion,  therefore,  that  our  present  horses  are  degen- 
erated in  their  power  of  staying  a  distance  under  weight,  is 
wholly  without  foundation  ;  since  I  have  shown  that,  even 
taking  the  time  of  the  Childers'  performance  as  the  true  rate, 
of  which  there  is  some  doubt,  yet  it  has  recently  been  beaten 
very  considerably  by  West  Australian  and  Kingston.  Many 
loose  assertions  have  been  made  as   to  the  rate  of  the  horse, 


380  THE    HORSE. 

for  a  single  mile  in  the  last  century,  but  there  is  not  the  slight- 
est reliance  to  be  placed  upon  them.  That  any  race-horse  ever 
ran  a  mile  within  the  minute,  is  an  absurd  fiction  ;  and  it  is 
out  of  the  question  to  suppose  that  if  Childers  could  not  beat 
our  modern  horses  over  the  Beacon  Course,  he  could  beat  them 
a  shorter  distance.  Stoutness  was  undoubtedly  the  forte  of  the 
early  race-horses ;  they  were  of  small  size,  very  wiry  and  low, 
and  could  unquestionably  stay  a  distance,  and  could  race 
month  after  month,  and  year  after  year,  in  a  way  seldom  imi- 
tated in  these  days ;  but  that  they  could  in  their  small  compact 
forms  run  as  fast  in  a  short  spin  as  our  modern  three-year-olds, 
is  quite  a  fallacy  ;  and  no  racing  man  of  any  experience  would 
admit  it  for  a  moment. 

The  size  and  shape  of  the  modern  thoroughbred  horse  are 
superior  to  those  of  olden  days,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  portraits 
of  them  handed  down  to  us  by  Stubbs,  who  was  by  far  the  most 
faithful  animal  painter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  elegance 
of  shape  we  beat  the  horses  of  that  day  very  considerably,  more 
especially  in  the  beauty  of  the  head  and  the  formation  of  the 
shoulders,  which  have  been  much  attended  to  by  breeders.  In 
size,  also,  there  has  been  an  immense  stride  made,  the  average 
height  of  the  race-horse  having  been  increased  by  at  least  a 
hand  within  the  last  century.  This  enlargement  is,  I  believe, 
chiefly  due  to  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  who  was  the  sire  of 
Babraham,  the  only  horse  of  his  time  which  reached  16  hands, 
and  sire  or  grandsire  of  several  which  were  more  than  15  hands, 
much  above  the  average  height  of  horses  at  that  time — as,  for 
instance.  Fearnought,  Genius,  Gower  Stallion,  Infant,  Denmark, 
Bolton,  Cade,  Chub,  Lofty,  and  Amphion.  Indeed  it  will  be 
found,  by  an  examination  of  the  horses  of  that  time,  that  out  of 
130  winners  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there 
were  only  18  of  the  height  of  15  hands  and  upwards,  of  which 
11  were  by  Godolphin  or  his  sons,  three  descended  from  the 
Darley  Arabian,  two  from  the  Byerley  Turk,  and  two  from 
other  sources.  It  may  therefore  be  assumed,  with  some  degree 
of  probability,  that  the  increase  in  size  is  in  great  measure  due 
to  the  Godolphin,  in  addition  to  the  extra  care  and  attention 
which  the  horse  has  received  during  the  same  time.  Neverthe- 
less, all  the  care  and  forcing  in  the  world  will  not  increase  the 


Comparisons  of  spekd.  381 

size  of  some  breeds  ;  and  unless  there  was  this  capability  of 
being  forced,  no  amount  of  attention  would  have  brought  the 
horse  to  the  present  average,  which  may  be  placed  at  about  15 
hands  3  inches. 


COMPARISONS   OF   SPEED,    BIG.,    BETWEEN   ENGLISH   AND    AMERICAN 
HORSES. 

From,  the  Spirit  of  the,  Times. 

It  will  appear,  on  a  critical  examination  of  the  subject,  that 
there  is  not  much  difference  in  the  powers  of  the  best  race-horses 
for  more  than  a  century ;  a  period  during  which  they  have  been 
brought,  upon  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  to  the  present  high 
state  of  perfection.  AVithin  the  last  two  years  have  been  exhib- 
ited faster  running  in  England,  by  West  Australian  and  Kings- 
ton, and  in  this  country,  by  Lexington  and  Lecomte,  than  was 
ever  before  known.  The  two  last  have  run  four  miles,  and  four- 
mile  heats,  faster,  in  either  case,  than  has  been  performed  in 
England.  "  Stonehenge,"  who  has  been  well  endorsed  in  Eng- 
land, has  shown  "  the  absurd  fiction "  of  "  a  mile  within  a 
minute ; "  and  that  there  is  "  not  the  slightest  reliance  to  be 
placed  upon  the  many  loose  assertions  " — such  as  the  reported 
accounts  of  Childers  ;  and  that  he  and  Eclipse  were  "  a  distance 
better  than  any  other  horses  that  have  appeared,"  or  that  they 
"  could  beat  any  other  a  half-mile  in  four  miles !  "  On  the  same 
authority,  it  appears  that,  in  the  fastest  Derby,  St.  Leger,  and 
Ascot  cup  races,  as  won  by  Surj^lice,  the  Flying  Dutchman,  Sir 
Tatton  Sykes,  Don  John,  and  West  Australian,  the  distance 
varying  from  one  mile  and  a  half  to  two  miles  and  a  half,  that 
the  fastest  rate,  with  English  weights,  has  been  a  little  over  one 
minute  and  forty  seconds  per  mile.  We  have  no  authentic 
report  that  the  mile  has  been  run  in  England  under  one  minute 
and  forty -two  seconds,  the  time  of  Henry  Perritt  at  New  Orleans. 
Nominally  of  the  same  age,  three  years  old,  and  with  the  same 
weight,  86  lbs..  Inheritor,  at  Liverpool,  ran  two  miles  in  3.25  ; 
which  is  at  the  rate  per  mile  of  1.42^.  "  Stonehenge,"  referring 
to  what  he  considers  the  best  race  ever  run  in  England,  states 


382  THK    II014SK. 

that  AVest  Australian,  four  years  old,  carrying  the  St.  Leger 
weight,  8  St.  6  lbs. — 118  pounds — "  defeated  Kingston  by  ahead 
only,"  the  latter  five  years  old,  carrying  9  st. — 126  pounds — 
running  two  and  a  half  miles  in  4.27,  "  or,  as  nearly  as  possible, 
13|  seconds  per  furlong."  "  Tliis  performance,  the  best  of 
modern  days,  considering  the  weight,  the  age,  and  the  distance, 
will  compare  very  favorably  with  the  often  quoted  exploit  of 
Childers,  in  1721,  at  J^ewmarket,  when  being  six  years  old, 
carrying  9  st.  21bs. — 128  pounds — he  did  the  distance,  three  and 
a  half  miles,  in  6m.  40s.,  or  at  the  rate  of  14  seconds  and  one- 
third  per  furlong."  "  Thus  allowing  Childers  his  year  for  the 
extra  mile  in  the  course,  and  for  the  two  pounds  which  he 
carried  above  Kingston's  weight,  he,  Childers,  was  outdone  by 
Kingston  at  Ascot,  by  one  second  per  furlong,  and  likewise  by 
West  Australian,  at  the  usual  allowance  for  his  age."  "  Kings- 
ton, of  the  same  age  as  Arrow,  and  carrying  9  st.  instead  ot 
6  St.  2  lbs. — 100  pounds — ran  two  and  a  half  miles  at  a  better  rate 
than  Arrow,  in  his  race  with  Brown  Dick,  did  his  three  miles, 
by  one-third  of  a  second  per  furlong."  But  Ai-row's  was  a  race 
of  three-mile  heats,  the  second  heat  in  5m.  43is.  Lexington, 
nominally  four  years  old,  carrying  103  pounds,  ran  four  miles, 
also  at  New  Orleans,  in  7m.  19|s.,  or,  as  nearly  as  may  be, 
13f  seconds  per  furlong,  at  the  rate,  for  four  miles,  of  less  than 
Im.  50s.  per  mile. 

The  often  quoted  exploit  of  Eclipse,  of  England,  was  that  he 
ran  four  miles,  carrying  168  pounds,  in  eight  minutes. 

With  these  data  before  them,  it  is  left  for  others  to  draw 
their  own  deductions  of  the  relative  merits  of  West  Australian, 
Childers,  Eclipse,  and  Lexington,  at  the  distances  they  ran, 
varying  from  two  and  a  half  miles  to  four. 

Some  among  us  believe  that  Lexington  and  Lecomte  were 
about  as  fast  and  as  good  race-horses  as  have  ever  appeared  in 
England.  Undoubtedly  they  could  "stay  a  distance"  about  as 
well  as  any  horse  that  has  run  anywhere,  having  run  two  heats, 
of  four  miles,  in  7m.  26s,  and  7m.  38s.,  and  the  third  mile  of 
the  second  heat  in  Im.  47s. 

It  would  be  a  difficult  task  to  institute  a  fair  comparison 
between  the  race-horses  of  England  and  America,  the  systems 
of  racing  being  so  different  in  the  two  countries.     With  the 


ENGLISH    AND    AMERICAN    EACERS. 


383 


exception  of  the  light  weights,  adopted  by  us  for  convenience, 
the  modes  and  rules  of  our  turf  are  nearly  the  same  as  they 
were  in  England  the  last  century.  In  England,  since  that 
period,  the  mode  of  racing  has  been  essentially  changed  ;  heavy 
weights,  even  for  two  and  three-year-olds,  at  short  distances, 
rarely  beyond  two  and  a  half  miles  ;  no  longer  races  of  heats  ; 
the  great  events  being  for  "  baby  horses,"  two  and  three-year- 
olds,  instead  of  horses^  as  formerly.  They  rarely,  nowadays, 
reach  maturity  in  England.  Priam,  Touchstone,  Harkaway, 
and  Rataplan,  are  to  be  regarded  as  exceptions  to  a  rule.  Chil- 
ders  and  Eclipse  were  not  introduced  upon  the  turf  until  five 
years  old,  an  age  at  which  the  most  distinguished  horses  rarely 
run  in  these  days. 

The  elastic  turf  and  the  straighter  shape  of  the  English  race- 
courses, better  adapt  them  to  speed  than  our  circular  "  race- 
tracks," that  are  wholly  denuded  of  turf.  Therefore  a  fair  com- 
parison of  English  and  American  race-horses  cannot  be  made 
by  time  as  the  test ;  one,  too,  that  is  not  held  in  as  high  esteem 
in  England  as  with  us.    Time,  there,  is  frequently  disregarded. 

Rather  a  long  catalogue  is  here  presented  of  the  best  race- 
horses of  England  and  of  this  country,  which  might  be  extended. 
Those  now  or  lately  upon  our  turf  are  omitted,  as  some  doubts 
might  be  entertained  of  their  comparative  merits.  Of  those 
furnished,  who  will  agree  as  to  the  pre-eminence  of  any  two  of 
them ;  at  least,  to  place  any  six  above  the  rest  ? 


MOST   RENOWlSrED   ENGLISH   AND   AMERICAN   H0ESE8* 


1715*  Childers. 

1718*  Partner. 

1748*  Matchem. 

1749*  Regulus,  )       by  the  Go- 

1749    Mirza,      \  dolphin  Arabian. 

1749*  Spectator. 

1750*  Snap. 

1758*  Herod. 

1764*  Eclipse,  by  Marske. 

1771*  Shark,  by  Marske. 

1773*  Pot8os,  by  Eclipse. 

*  Saltram,  by  Eclipse. 


1777*t  Diomed. 

1782t  Trumpator. 

1784t  Sir  Peter. 

1790t  Waxy. 

1792t  Hambletonian, 

179  6t  Sorcerer. 

1798t  Eleanor. 

17981  Orville. 

1807t  Whalebone. 

1816    Sultan. 

1822    Camel. 

1827t  Priam,  by  Emilius.t 


Boston's  ancestors. 


+  Derby  and  8t.  Leger  winners. 


384 


THE   HOESE. 


1831t  Plenipotentiary,  by  Emilius.f 
1831t  Touchstone. 

1  Queen  of  Trumps. 

1  Bay  Middleton. 

1  Flying  Dutchman. 

Harkaway. 

1  Don  John. 

1  Sir  Tatton  Sykes. 

1  West  Australian. 

Kingston. 

1801*  Florizel. 
1812  Potomac. 
1813*  Sir  Archy. 

1812  Lady  Lightfoot,  by  Sir  Archy. 

1812  Vanity,  by  Sir  Archy. 

1813  Reality,  by  Sir  Archy. 
1813*  Timoleon,by  Sir  Archy. 

1814  Virginian,  by  Sir  Archy. 

1815  Sir  Charles,  by  Sir  Archy. 
1820   Bertrand,  by  SirArchy. 
1801    Maid  of  the  Oaks,  by  Imp. 

Spread  Eagle. 
1801   Floretta,  by  Imported  Spread 
Eagle. 


1801  Postboy,  by  Imp.  Gabriel. 
1801  Oscar,  by  Imp.  Gabriel. 
1801  Hickory. 
1808  Duroc. 

Sir  Solomon. 

1814  American  Eclipse. 
1820  Flirtilla. 

Monsieur  Tonson. 

Sally  Walker. 

Ariel,  by  American  Eclipse. 

Medoc,  by  American  Eclipse. 

Fanny,  by  American  Eclipse. 

Lady  Clifden. 

Doubloon,  by  Imp.  Margrave. 

Blue    and    Brown  Dick,    by 

Imported  Margrave. 
1833  Boston. 
1837  Fashion. 
1839  Peytona. 

Trifle,  by  Sir  Charles. 

Andrew,  by  Sir  Charles. 

Wagner,  by  Sir  Charles. 

Grey  Eagle. 


Another  view  of  tlie  comparative  merits  of  race-horses  that 
were  not  contemporaries  is  presented  by  time  on  the  same  course, 
and  with  the  same  weight,  or  the  relative  weight  for  age. 

It  has  been  shown  lately,  that  on  the  Charleston  Course,  at 
three  and  four-mile  heats,  in  the  races  won  by  Nina,  High- 
lander, Jefferson  Davis,  and  Frank  Allen,  nearly  the  same  time 
has  been  made  ;  besides  the  comparison  between  that  of  Ber- 
trand and  Floride. 

On  the  Union  Course,  New  York,  the  fastest  four-mile  heats 
were  as  follows  ; — 

Fashion,  5  years,  111  lbs.,  and  Boston,  9  years,  126  lbs., 7.82J— 7.46 

Tally-ho,  4  yrs.,  104  lbs.,  and  Bostona,  5  yrs.,  Ill  lbs., 7.83  —7.43 

Fashion,  aged,  123  lbs.,  and  Peytona,  5  yrs.,  117  lbs., 7.89  —7.45 

Eclipse,  9  yrs.,  126  lbs.,  and  Henry,  4  yrs.,  108  lbs., 7.87^—7.49 

Eed-Eye,  8  yrs.,  126  lbs.,  and  One-Eyed  Joe,  6  yrs.,  117  lbs.,       ....  7.52  —7.89 
Lady  Clifden,  4  yrs.,  101  lbs.,  and  Picton,  8  yrs.,  90  lbs.,  Picton  winning 

first  heat 7.44-7.43i-7.56J 


*  Boston's  ancestors. 


+  Derby  and  St.  Leger  winners. 


AMERICAN    AND    ENGLISH    HORSES.  385 

It  would  seem  tliere  was  no  great  difterence  in  the  speed  and 
bottom  of  the  horses  that  have  acquired  the  most  renown  on  the 
Union  Course.  Observer. 


best  amekicajsr  and  english  horses. 

the  sons  of  boston. — time  as  influenced  by  weight. ^fast  eaoes. — 

lexington'8  old  ameeioan  blood. 

Renowned  sons  of  Boston  have  run  the  fastest  races  of  four 
miles,  and  of  four-mile  heats,  upon  the  American  record.  "  That 
has  been  settled  at  ISTew  Orleans,"  by  Lexington's  race  of  four 
miles  in  T.19|: ;  and  that  won  by  Lecomte,  four-mile  heats,  in 
Y.26 — 7.38f .  Next  in  the  order  of  time  comes  the  race  won  by 
Fashion,  beating  Boston,  in  7.321 — 7.45  •  then  Boston's  son. 
Tally-ho,  beating  Bostona,  in  T.33 — 7.43,  at  New  York ;  and 
the  several  fast  races  at  New  Orleans,  as  between  George  Mar- 
tin and  Reel — dam  of  Lecomte — in  nearly  the  same  time  as 
Tally-ho's  first  and  second  heats  ;  Miss  Foote's  Grey  Medoc's 
—and  others  scarce  known  to  fame — heats  in  7.35  ;  and  other 
heats  by  Louis  d'Or,  Charmer,  Eeube,  and  others,  also  at  New 
Orleans,  varying  from  7.37  to  about  7.40  ;  but  in  very  few  cases 
with  the  full  weiglit  of  aged  horses  ;  and,  in  all  instances,  with 
less  weight  than  usually  carried  at  the  more  Northern  courses. 
Boston's  son,  Dick  Doty,  beating  Little  Flea,  at  Lexington,  Ken- 
tucky, won  in  7.37| — 7.46i  ;  Peytona,  beating  Fashion,  at  New 
York,  in  7.39 — 7.43  ;  and  the  two  first  heats  in  Eclipse's  great 
match,  on  the  same  course,  were  run  7.37  and  7.49.  Nearly  each 
of  these  races,  at  the  period  of  their  performance,  was  con- 
sidered "  the  best  race  ever  run  in  America,"  to  say  nothing  of 
the  "  best  race  in  Yirginia,"  run  by  Red  Eye  and  Nina  ;  both 
of  them  by  Boston.  Last  April  the  opinion  was  expressed  at 
New  Orleans  that  "  Lecomte  is  the  best  horse  America  ever 
produced  ; "  this  April,  at  the  same  place,  the  owner  of  Lexing- 
ton is  assured  he  "enjoys  the  proud  supremacy  of  owning  the 
fastest  horse  in  America,  if  not  in  the  world."  The  present 
week,  perhaps,  will  decide  which  is  "  best,"  at  four-mile  heats, 
Lecomte  or  Lexington.  Condition,  or  accident,  may  decide 
*'  the  rub." 

Vol.  I.— 25 


THE   HOltSE. 


For  details  of  comparative  speed,  age,  and  weight  carried, 
in  the  examples  given,  reference  may  be  had  to  an  article  pub- 
lished in  the  N.  Y.  "  Spirit  of  the  Times,"  of  June,  1854,  page 
223,  in  No.  19,  vol.  24. 

If  time  alone  be  the  test,  the  palm  must  be  conceded  to 
Lexington ;  in  not  only  having  run  the  fastest  four  miles  in 
America,  but  also  the  fastest  three  miles,  in  5.31.  Tlie  noble 
animal  has  fully  realized  all  the  high  expectations  of  his 
judicious  owner  and  other  zealous  backers.  Notwithstanding 
"the  various  circumstances  upon  which  so  much  depends  for 
success  were  in  the  highest  degree  favorable — the  condition  of 
the  horse  and  the  track  excellent — the  sky  clear,  the  air  warm 
and  balmy — the  day  could  not  possibly  have  been  better;" 
jockeyed,  too,  by  Gil.  Patrick,  the  best  rider  in  the  country, 
and  carrying  only  103  lbs.,  on  a  horse  nearly  five  years  old  ;  yet 
Lexington  ran  a  great  hazard  of  losing  the  race  by  the  loss  of 
"  his  left  fore  plate  and  half  the  right  one."  Had  he  lost  his 
plate  earlier,  owing  to  the  "  extreme  hardness  of  the  track," 
Lexington's  loss  of  the  match  seems  to  have  been  inevitable. 
"  Taking  the  chances  into  view,"  in  his  last  article,  your  corre- 
spondent wrote — "  he  would  rather  bet  on  time  than  on  Lexing- 
ton's heating  T.26."  In  the  "  Observations  on  the  American 
Turf,  by  D.  P.,"  in  the  "  Spirit  of  the  Times,"  of  Feb.  3,  1855, 
No.  51,  page  606,  he  expressed  his  belief  "that  Lecomte  is 
above  and  beyond  all  comparison  the  best  and  surest  race-horse 
that  has  appeared  in  this  country,  with  the  single  doubtful  ex- 
ception of  Boston  !  "  To  his  faith  in  Boston  "  D.  P."  would  die 
a  martyr.  It  is  known  that  Lecomte  has  run  his  mile  in  1.45i, 
and  "  four  miles  in  7.26."  "  I  wuU  venture  the  prediction," 
D.  P.  adds — "  that  if  ever  he  " — Lecomte — "  runs  a  single  four- 
mile  heat  in  his  present  condition,  and  he  loses  it,  the  time  will 
he  made  in  less  than  Y.20  !  If  Lexington  can  now  beat  Le- 
comte, he  must  be  something  more  than  a  horse." 

Yet  in  the  discussion  of  several  of  the  best  races,  with  the 
difference  of  weight,  and  for  the  same  ages  too,  "  D.  P."  is  of 
opinion  "  the  question  may  well  be  put,  has  the  Y.37  heat  of 
Henry  ever  been  beaten  in  this  country  ? "  He  states  that 
Henry  and  Lecomte  "  were  both  of  the  same  age  ;  Henry  made 
7.37  with  108  lbs.  upon  his  back,  while  Lecomte  made  7.26  with 


ECLIPSE    AND    FLYING    CHILDEES.  387 

only  86  lbs."— 89  were  carried.  "  The  IsTew  Orleans  is  fully 
•  six  seconds  quicker  " — in  four  miles  ? — "  than  the  Union  at  the 
time  of  Henry's  race."  Challenges  have  been  offered  the 
backers  of  the  'New  Orleans  cracks,  it  is  believed,  on  both 
Henry's  and  Fashion's  time,  with  the  weights  they  carried,  but 
not  accepted. 

But  for  the  fear  of  being  tedious,  a  comparison  between 
Lexington's  time  and  that  of  the  fastest  races  in  England,  at 
four  miles  and  upward,  and  of  the  relative  weights  carried, 
would  be  here  made.  The  subject  will  be  dismissed,  with  the 
expression  of  disbelief,  for  obvious  reasons,  in  the  incredible 
accounts  of  Flying  Childers.  He,  likewise,  ran  over  the  Beacon 
Course,  four  miles,  one  furlong,  and  thirty-eight  yards,  in  seven 
minutes  and  thirty  seconds !  "  But  no  timer  can  see  the  length 
of  the  Beacon  Course,  near  a  mile  on  one  side  being  excluded 
from  view  by  "  the  Devil's  ditch,"  an  old  Saxon  work  of  in- 
trenchment.  The  late  Judge  Dnval,  of  Maryland,  and  one  of 
the  Justices  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  made  a  comparison 
of  the  running  of  Childers  and  Eclipse,  as  follows ;  "  Eclipse 
ran,  at  York,  four  miles  in  eight  minutes,  carrying  12  stone — 
168  pounds,  42  pounds  more  than  the  standard  weight  at  this 
time.  If  the  calculation  of  old  experienced  sportsmen,  that 
the  addition  of  seven  pounds  weight  in  the  rider  makes  the  dif- 
ference of  a  distance,  which  is  240  yards,  in  a  heat  of  four  miles, 
be  correct,  then  the  running  of  Eclipse,  carrying  forty  pounds 
more  than  Childers,  will  ju-ove  that  Eclipse  was  the  swiftest 
animal."  It  does  not  appear  that  in  any  of  his  eighteen  races 
the  time  of  Eclipse  was  at  all  noted,  excepting  at  York,  when 
six  years  old,  as  above  quoted.  "  In  truth,  not  any  horse  had 
the  shadow  of  a  chance  of  winning  against  Eclipse," — he  dis- 
tanced the  field  "  whenever  he  chose," — "  was  never  beaten,  nor 
had  a  whip  flourished  over  him,  or  felt  the  tickling  of  a  spur." 
"  Childers  flourished  in  1721-2,  Eclipse  in  1769-70."  By  the 
way,  in  his  inarks,  in  the  portrait  in  the  "  American  Turf  Eegis- 
ter,"  vol.  ii.,  Childers  resembles  Lexington.  "  Next  to  these  cele- 
brated race-horses,  perhaps  Highflyer  was  the  fleetest  horse  that 
has  been  raised  in  England."  But  it  does  not  appear  that  he, 
and  many  other  horses  of  the  first  fame  that  were  never  beaten, 
Buch  as  Lath,  Babraham,  Mirza,  Regulus,  &c.,  ever  ran  a  very 


888  THE    HORSE. 

fast  race  ;  no  record  of  the  kind.  However,  it  is  recorded  of 
Matchem,  that  "  in  1775,  March  31,  at  six  years  old,  carrying 
8  stone  7  lbs. — 119  lbs. — he  beat  Trajan  over  the  Beacon  Course 
in  7.20  !  "  "  Matchem  was  beat  in  1776,  running  for  the  Jockey 
Club  Plate,  four-mile  heats,"  in  three  heats,  winning  neither  of 
them  ;  Spectator,  winner  of  the  race,  "  ran  in  7.52 — 7.42 — 8.05." 
The  dilierence  in  the  Jockey  Club  weights  probably  caused  the 
diiference  in  the  time  in  the  two  races,  if  the  former  was  really 
the  correct  time.  Spectator  was  sire  to  the  dam  of  our  famed 
Diomed.  Of  course  his  blood  descends  to  Lexington,  as  Avell 
as  that  of  Childei's  and  Eclipse,  as  might  be  shown  in  his  pedi- 
gree. Lexington's  remote  maternal  ancestry  is  from  the  old- 
fashioned  American  blood,  as  transmitted  from  Fearnought, 
Medley,  Diomed,  and  Sir  Archy  ;  from  whom  he  is  also  de- 
scended in  the  paternal  line,  through  Timoleon  and  Boston. 
His  pedigree  has  been  given  in  full  in  the  "  Spirit  of  the 
Times." 

These  are  mere  observations  on  facts^  as  they  are,  leaving 
all  speculation  about  them  to  others.  Observer. 


THE   THOROUGHBRED    RACE-HORSE. 

In  preceding  articles,  definitions  and  examples  of  a  thorough- 
bred race-horse  have  been  given.  Strictly  speaking,  it  has  been 
stated,  his  pedigree,  lineally  and  collaterally,  must  be  traced  to 
an  approved  Oriental  source,  the  fountain  head  of  the  best  blood 
of  England.  But  few  pedigrees  of  the  best  race-horses  of  modern 
times  will  bear  that  test.  Latterly,  it  has  been  deemed  sufficient 
for  a  "  thoroughbred,"  if  his  pedigree  can  be  traced  for  eight 
generations  without  any  base  admixture.  But  no  horse  is  con- 
sidered thoroughbred  in  England  whose  pedigi-ee  is  not  on 
record  in  "  The  Stud  Book."  From  the  want  of  such  a  Avork  in 
this  country,  American  horses  are  considered  thoroughbred  if 
the  sire  be  known  to  be  so,  and  the  maternal  pedigree  can  be 
traced  without  a  stain  to  some  mare  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  remove, 
reputed  to  be  thoroughbred  ;  as  Burwell's  Regulus  mare,  pro- 
genitor of  the  Lady  Lightfoot  stock ;  Johnson's  Medley  mare, 


WHAT   IS    A    TrfOROUGHT5EED  ?  389 

progenitor  of  Reality,  Bonnets  o'  Blue,  and  Fashion  ;  and  Slam- 
erkin,  maternal  ancestor  of  Philo. 

Some  believe  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  there  be  remote 
ancestors  on  both  sides,  known  to  be  of  the  best  blood,  as  the 
maternal  progenitor  of  Flying  Dutchman,  the  dam  of  the  True 
Blues,  by  the  Byerley  Turk.  From  her  are  also  lineally  de- 
scended the  renowned  Sir  Peter  Teazle  and  Medley,  out  of  own 
sisters  by  Snap.  Others  consider  it  of  more  importance  that 
the  parents  in  each  generation,  until  traced  up  to  tlie  fountain, 
be  of  the  first  celebrity,  as  in  the  example  of  Boston's  pedigree. 
The  two  Childers,  Partner,  Regulus,  Blank,  Matchem,  Herod, 
Eclipse,  Snap,  Highflyer,  PotSos,  Saltram,  Rockingham,  Shark, 
Diomed,  &c. — combined  in  Boston — are  regarded  as  the  best 
channels  for  the  blood  of  the  most  famed  horses  from  their 
Oriental  sires. 

Sir  A.rcliy,  the  best  American  bred  stock-getter  we  have  had, 
is  in  every  respect  thoroughbred  ;  the  pedigrees  of  his  sire  and 
dam  being  found,  too,  in  the  Stud  Book.  For  the  present  pur- 
pose, a  mere  glance  will  be  taken  of  his  pedigree.  That  of  his 
sire,  Diomed,  need  not  be  repeated.  Sir  Archy's  dam,  imp. 
Castianira,  was  got  by  Rockingham ;  grandam  by  Trentham, 
great  grandam  by  Bosphorus. 

Rockingham,  foaled  1780,  was  the  best  race-horse  in  Eng- 
land— owned  by  the  Prince  of  Wales — succeeding  the  famous 
sons  of  Eclipse,  Saltram  and  Dungannon  ;  he  was  a  winner  of 
thirty-two  prizes  in  five  years.  The  famous  Miss  Kingsland, 
own  sister  to  Sir  Archy's  grandam,  by  Trentham,  out  of  the  dam 
of  the  famed  Pegasus,  was  of  the  same  year.  She  ran  a  long 
and  brilliant  career.  Trentham  was  a  very  high-bred  horse, 
paternally  three  removes  from  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  his  sire 
out  of  a  sister  in  blood  to  Matchem's  dam  ;  and  his  own  grandam 
Ebony,  by  Flying  Childers.  Trentham,  1766,  realized  in  stakes 
more  than  8,000  guineas,  an  enormous  sum  in  those  days.  His 
descendants  are  renowned,  especially  Camilla,  Sir  Archy,  Mel- 
bourne, Lanercost,  and  Alarm.  1754,  Bosj^horus  was  got  by 
Babraham,  own  brother  to  Blank,  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian — 
H.  C.  Childers — Leedes — Moonah  Barb  mare. 

Highflyer,  sire  to  Rockingham,  is  known  as  the  best  son  of 
Herod  ;  of  turf  and  stud  ability  scarce  second  to  any  horse  of 


390  THE    HORSE. 

England  ;  liis  dam  by  Blank,  grandam  by  Regulus  ; — tracing  to 
a  royal  mare,  Arabian  or  Barb.  Both  Blank  and  Regulus  were 
by  the  Godolpliin  Arabian. 

It  appears  that  Sir  Archy  is  three  removes  from  Highflyer, 
and  three  from  Herod,  through  Diomed,  with  another  cross  of 
Highflyer.  But  he  had  no  cross  from  Eclipse  or  Snap.  Where- 
fore Sir  Archy  was  a  good  cross  for  PotStos  and  Saltram,  sons 
of  Eclipse,  and  for  Snap — two  crosses — progenitors  of  Boston. 

It  is  asked  of  "Observer,"  "Are  the  Sir  Archys  still  in 
existence  ?  "  Probably  not  one  of  his  get,  as  about  thirty  years 
have  elapsed  since  they  retired  from  the  turf.  But  as  a  breed, 
the  Sir  Archys  are  imperishable.  "  Has  the  blood  of  Sir  Archy 
been  improved  ?  "  is  the  next  question.  This  seems  impossible. 
His  descendants,  however,  of  the  second  and  third  generation, 
have  acquired  more  fame  for  fast  races  than  his  own  get.  Some 
think  the  renowned  sons  of  Boston  have  attained  "  the  Fourier- 
ism  of  perfection. "  Those  who  had  been  sceptical  "  have 
knocked  under  to  the  Bostons ; "  and  some  believe,  with 
"  Cinna,"  that  Lexington  and  Lecomte  have  made  that  stock 
unapproachable ;  but  it  is  yet  a  mooted  point — ''''Palmiain  qui 
meruit  fer at.''''  It  is  next  asked,  "  Are  any  of  Boston's  progeny 
perpetuating  his  extraordinary  game?  "  This  appears  to  be  the 
case  in  respect  to  the  Tally-hos.  Sebastopol  testifies  to  the 
excellence  of  the  Boston  and  Sir  Archy  blood,  being  "  inbred," 
to  both  of  them — tracing  to  Boston  on  both  sides,  and  through 
his  dam  to  the  Flirtillas  and  Slamerkin,  to  the  sixteenth  genera- 
tion." 

The  blood,  speed,  bottom,  and  durability  of  the  Boston  stock 
would  make  them  a  valuable  cross  for  England  at  this  time, 
giving  strength  of  limb,  hardihood,  and  endurance  to  much  of 
the  English  precocious  and  speedy  stock,  that  in  some  of  those 
qualifications  have  been  proven  deficient.  Either  Lexington, 
Lecomte,  or  Red  Eye,  would  meet  a  general  and  high  approba- 
tion in  the  stud,  in  England.  Their  dams,  too,  are  by  horses  of 
high  character  upon  the  English  turf,  and  of  approved  pedigrees ; 
in  which  respect  Lecomte  might  be  preferred,  because  of  the 
record  in  the  Stud  Book.  But  the  near  Priam  cross  would  be 
of  great  service  to  Red  Eye.  When  upon  the  turf,  Priam  was 
considered  worthy  of  succeeding  to   the  laurels  of  Childers, 


PKIAM    AND    EMILIUS.  391 

Eclipse,  and  Higlifljer.  "  In  the  stud  in  England,"  thongli  not 
so  successful  as  with  us,  "  the  success  of  Priam  has  been  remark- 
able ;  "  "  to  have  been  the  progenitor  of  Crucifix,  and  her  sons 
Surplice  and  Cowl,  of  Miss  Letty,  Industry,  Weathergage,  Cos- 
sack and  Hero,  is  no  common  reputation."  "  All  these  horses," 
Stonehenge  adds,  "have  been  distinguished  by  true  running, 
and  the  blood  always  trains  on ;  the  descendants  of  Emilius  be- 
ing full  of  Eclipse  blood,  through  Miss  Hervey,  "Waxy,  son  of 
PotSos,  Yixen,  and  Saltram,  are  particularly  stout  and  honest." 

As  an  example  for  a  pedigree  in  full,  to  the  most  remote 
source,  from  the  best  horses — such  as  our  breeders  may  imitate, 
as  far  as  is  in  their  power,  in  respect  to  American  horses — that 
of  Priam  is  here  given,  Priam,  b,,  was  got  by  Emilius,  dam 
Cressida  by  Whiskey  ;  grandam  Young  Giantess  by  Diomed ; 
her  dam  Giantess  by  Matchem,  out  of  Molly  Longlegs  by  Ba- 
braham — Cole's  Foxhunter— Partner — sister  to  Eoxana  by  the 
Bald  Galloway — sister  to  Chanter  by  Acaster  Turk — Leeds 
Arabian — Spanker.  The  last  by  the  D'Arcy  Yellow  Turk — 
dam  by  the  Morocco  Barb — Bald  Peg  by  an  Arabian  out  of  a 
Barb  mare.  Thus  to  ten  generations  Priam's  pedigree  has  been 
traced  to  the  most  remote  source  ;  a  combination  of  Arabian, 
Barb,  and  Turkish  blood,  to  say  nothing  of  his  various  channels 
of  descent  from  the  Godolphin  and  Darley  Arabians  and  the 
Byerley  Turk. 

Emilius,  the  best  race-horse  of  liis  day,  like  Priam,  winner 
of  the  Derby  and  other  great  stakes,  was  got  by  Orville,  dam 
by  Stamford — ^Whiskey — Dorimant — Blank,  &c.  Orville  by 
Beningbrough  ;  dam  by  Highflyer,  &c. — to  Regulus,  and  to 
Marske's  dam  ;  one  of  the  most  ancient  pedigrees  on  the  record. 
Beningbrough  by  King  Fergus,  son  of  Eclipse,  dam  by  Herod — 
Matchem,  &c.  Stamford,  a  very  distinguished  runner  and 
stallion,  own  brother  to  Paris  and  Archduke,  the  last  imported 
into  Yirginia,  Derby  winners,  was  got  by  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  out 
of  Horatio  by  Eclipse.  Sir  Peter,  as  commonly  called,  the  best 
son  of  Highflyer,  was  successor  to  all  his  laurels  ;  his  dam 
Papillon  by  Snap ;  Regulus,  &c.  Next  to  Eclipse  and  Herod, 
Sir  Peter  got  more  winners  than  any  horse  on  record.  "  In 
him  was  united  the  best  blood  of  Herod,  Snap,  Blank,  and 
Kegulus."     "Whiskey  was  the  best  horse  bred  by  the  Prince  of 


392  THE    HORSE. 

"Wales — George  IV. — reiioM-ned  both  on  the  turf  and  in  the 
stud ;  he  was  got  by  Saltram,  dam  by  Herod — Matcliem — 
Regulus,  &c.  His  daughter  Eleanor,  Muley's  dam,  was  the 
only  winner,  to  this  day,  both  of  the  Derby  and  of  the  Oaks. 
For  the  other  noted  horses,  in  Priam's  pedigree,  see  tlie  Book. 
Young  Giantess,  Priam's  grandam  by  Diomed,  "ranks  with  the 
best  blood  mares  produced  in  England  ;  as  exemplified  by  her 
immediate  progeny  and  those  of  the  present  day,  embracing, 
besides  Priam,  his  rivals  in  fame.  West  Australian,  Kingston, 
Plying  Dutchman,  and  his  sire.  Bay  Middleton  ;  also  Sir  Tatton 
Sykes,  Alarm,  Cossack,  Yoltigeur,  Teddington,  Weathergage, 
Andover,  Stockwell,  and  his  own  brother  Rataplan,  Queen  of 
Trumps,  Alice  Hawthorn,  her  son  Oulston,  Yirago,  and  others 
of  renown. 

Having  been  asked  for  a  "  disquisition  on  breeding,"  I  can 
do  no  better  than  to  quote  from  the  author  already  referred 
to.  "The  purer  the  blood  the  more  likely  it  is  to  be  trans- 
mitted." "  Whichever  parent  is  of  the  purest  blood  will  be 
most  generally  represented  in  the  offspring."  "Breeding  'in- 
and-in'  is  injurious,"  but  there  are  exceptions,  as  already 
shown  ;  and  "  in  all  cases  there  is  some  in-breeding,"  as  in 
the  various  descendants  from  the  Godolj)hin  Arabian,  and 
from  Herod,  Eclipse,  Matchem,  Regulus,  and  Snap.  "  It  may 
be  remembered  the  Herod  and  Eclipse  blood  have  'hit'  in 
a  great  number  of  horses,  such  as  Whiskey,  Waxy,  Bening- 
brough,"  and  many  more  named  ;  to  which  may  be  added  Bos- 
ton, descended  from  Saltram  and  PotSos,  the  renowned  sons 
of  Eclipse,  sires  to  Whiskey  and  Waxy.  Boston  was  only  the 
fourth  generation  removed  from  Eclipse.  "It  must  also  be 
known  that  Eclipse  and  Herod — united  in  the  blood  of  Boston, 
several  crosses  from  each — are  both  descended  from  the  Darley 
Arabian,  the  one  on  the  sire's  side,  and  the  other  on  the  dam's." 
"  Priam  is  an  example  of  in-breeding.  This  horse  and  Pleni- 
potentiary were  both  sons  of  Emilius ;  the  latter  as  direct  a 
cross  as  is  often  seen,  but  the  former  in-bred  to  Whiskey.  Both 
were  extraordinary  winners,  but  Plenipotentiary  had  scarce  an 
average  success  as  a  stallion,  while  Priam,  considering  his  short 
stay"  in  England,  "has  achieved  an  imperishable  fame."  "Bay 
Middleton  was  the  produce  of  second  cousins,"  from  St.  Peter. 


IN-BREEDING.  3»3 

^'Stockwell  and  Rataplan  are  descended  in  the  same  degree 
from  Whalebone,"  &c.  Their  dam  was  by  Glencoe,  of  the 
same  year  with  Touchstone  and  Plenipo. — and  of  almost  equal 
renown  on  the  turf.  Flying  Dutchman  is  somewhat  in-bred, 
and  "  as  far  as  his  stock  has  been  tried,  is  eminently  suc- 
cessful as  a  stock-getter,"  uniting  "  the  stout  blood  of  Catton 
and  Orville  with  that  of  Selim."  "  The  pedigree  of  the  dam 
of  Sir  Tatton  Sykes  should  be  carefully  analyzed,  as  exliibiting 
a  curious  re-union  of  strains  ;  Muley  is  in-bred  to  TThiskey, 
he  is  then  crossed  with  an  Election  mare,  producing  Margrave  ; 
the  dam  of  Muley  being  Eleanor,  a  daughter  of  Young  Gi- 
antess by  Diomed."  From  Margrave,  "  Patty  Primrose,  con- 
taining in  her  pedigree  two  infusions  of  Young  Giantess  from 
Sorcerer,"  was  produced  the  dam  of  Sir  Tatton  Sykes,  with 
another  infusion  of  the  same  blood  from  his  sire  Melbourne. 
"  The  most  extraordinary  three-year-old  performance,  is  that 
of  Sir  Tatton  Sykes  over  the  St.  Leger  Course,  in  3.16,  at  a  rate 
of  13^  seconds  per  furlong." 

Margrave  and  Trustee,  stallions  yet  among  us,  were  of  the 
same  year,  and  beat  each  other  in  the  Derby  and  the  St.  Leger 
Stakes.  Margrave  and  Leviathan  are  sons  of  Muley  ;  conse- 
quently cousins  to  Priam.  Wherefore  it  is  probable  there  has 
been  considerable  in-breeding  of  late  among  us.  Priam  and 
Sovereign,  too,  were  by  the  same  sire,  Emilius.  The  dam  of 
the  latter  is  also  descended  from  Young  Giantess.  These,  with 
Glencoe,  have  latterly  been  our  best  stallions,  with  the  single 
exception  of  Boston. 

The  dam  of  West  Australian — reputed  to  have  run  the  best 
race  in  England — was  own  sister  to  Cotherstone,  whose  dam 
was  also  the  dam  of  Trustee.  Our  stock  may  now  need  a  good 
foreign  cross,  such  as  Kingston.  Don  John,  however,  may  do 
good  service. 

"  Out-crossing.  By  crossing  the  hlood^  we  understand  the 
selection  of  a  sire  composed  of  wholly  different  blood  from  that 
of  the  dam,  or  as  different  as  can  be  obtained.  The  sam.e  strain 
beyond  two  stages  deteriorates  the  constitutional  health,  dimin- 
ishes the  bone,  and  lowers  the  height.  The  great  difficulty  is 
to  obtain  a  cross  "  without  destroying  the  harmony  of  propor- 
tions," &c.     As  examples  of  judicious  out-crossing,  Harkaway 


394  THE    HOKSK. 

is  named  ''  do  doubt  a  very  superior  race-horse,  but  his  stock, 
though  stout,  is  deficient  in  speed.  Bee's-wing  is  another  good 
example ;  and  her  sons,  Newminster,  Xunnykirk,  and  Ohi 
Port ;  Queen  of  Trumps,  also  ;  but  in  her  remote  ancestry  there 
is  an  extraordinary  influx  of  Herod's  blood."  Success  is  some- 
times had  by  re-uniting,  after  an  interval  of  several  genera- 
tions, a  series  of  good  strains.  Hence,  it  is  supposed,  pure 
Boston  blood  would  be  of  great  benefit  in  England.  "  West 
Australian  is  a  valuable  example  of  a  good  out-cross  after  in- 
breeding." "  One  of  the  most  thoroughly-crossed  pedigrees  of 
the  day  is  that  of  Kingston  ;  and  being  such  a  good  horse  as  he 
was,  his  case  must  be  allowed  to  weigh  in  favor  of  this  kind  of 
breeding."  "  I  conceive  nothing  better  than  this  game  horse." 
The  out-cross  "is  not  so  much  in  reference  to  running  as  to 
breeding."  "  There  are  cases,"  like  that  of  Sir  Archy,  "  where 
a  horse  begets  racing  stock  out  of  all  sorts  of  mares,  as  Touch- 
stone, a  grandson  of  Whalebone,  carrying  his  grandfather's 
fame  still  further."  But  in  breeding,  the  brood-mare  must 
unite  high  qualifications,  in  blood,  frame,  health,  and  temper  ; 
as  "like  begets  like,"  but  subject  to  the  various  considerations 
partly  alluded  to.  "  Like  the  brood-mare,  the  stallion  requires 
several  essentials,"  as  in  the  mare  ;  but  "  he  must  not  only  be 
suitable  per  se,  but  he  must  also  be  adapted  to  the  particular 
mare."  "  Tlie  rock  upon  which  most  men  split  is  a  bigoted 
favoritism  for  some  particular  horse."  "  If  not  already  twice 
bred  in  and  in,"  it  is  recommended  to  seek  "  the  best  stallion 
of  the  best  strain  in  the  mare's  pedigree."  "  A  cross  into  blood 
already  existing  in  the  mare,  but  not  recently  in-bred,  nor  used 
more  than  once,  will  sometimes  answer,"  "It  is  commonly 
supposed  that  one  or  the  other  of  the  parents  should  be  of 
mature  age  ;  and  that  if  both  are  very  young  or  very  old,  the 
produce  will  be  decrepit  or  weakly."  "  The  general  practice 
of  breeding  is  to  use  young  stallions  with  old  mares,"  and  vice 
versa. 

"  The  various  crosses  since  the  days  of  Herod,  Eclipse,  and 
Matchem,  are  so  numerous  that  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  class 
them  ; "  "  far  less  from  the  Godolphin  and  Darley  Arabians, 
and  the  Byerley  Turk,"  from  which  all  the  best  pedigrees  are 


TlIK    BLOOD    OF    WAXY.  395 

to  be  traced.  But  the  author  classes  the  best  horses  now  on 
the  English  Turf  under  the  following  heads. 

"  Waxy  at  the  head  of  the  list,"  numbering  "  among  his 
stock,  in  the  direct  male  line,  13  St.  Leger  winners,  13  of  the 
Derby,  and  11  of  the  Oaks,  and  more  winners  of  great  races 
than  any  two  horses  since  his  time."  "  Like  Orville,  he  is  chiefly 
composed  of  Eclipse  and  Herod  blood,  with  a  double  dash  of 
the  Godolphin,  through  Sportsmistress,  dam  of  PotSos,  and 
Lisette."  "  This  stock  will  run  all  day,  and  no  distance  is  too 
great  for  them  ;"  but  "  are  not  so  fast  for  a  mile  as  some  others — 
especially  the  Buzzard  stock,"  from  Selim,  Sultan,  Bay  Middle- 
ton,  &c. ;  "  which  are  more  calculated  for  the  Rowley  mile  " 
than  longer  distances.  Glencoe  and  Grey  Eagle  are  of  this 
stock,  each  of  them  three  removes  from  Buzzard.  The  get  of 
Glencoe  and  of  Grey  Eagle  are  very  fast,  and  some  of  both  can 
stay  the  distance.  "  Buzzard,  imported  into  Virginia,  is  repre- 
sented by  almost  as  many  fashionable  horses  of  the  present  day, 
in  England,  as  Waxy."  "  Orville,  like  Waxy,  a  good  race- 
horse— bearing  affinity  in  blood  and  results  to  our  Sir  Archy — 
is  remarkable  for  combining  speed  with  stoutness."  "  He  was 
in-bred  in  King  Herod,  his  dam  having  been  by  Highflyer,  and 
his  sire  out  of  a  Herod  mare  ;  whilst  his  grandsire.  King  Fergus, 
by  Eclipse,  was  out  of  a  mare  by  Tartar,  sire  of  Herod."  "  The 
Waltons  and  Haphazards  mg,y  well  be  classed  together.  In 
blood  they  were  nearly  identical,  being  by  Sir  Peter  out  of 
mares  by  Eclipse,  or  his  son  Dungannon."  Of  Walton's  de- 
scendants. Partisan,  Yenison,  and  Gladiator,  are  the  most  prized; 
and  the  blood  of  the  last  two  is  by  many  considered  equal  to 
any  thing  out.  "  Nothing  can  exceed  the  beauty  of  form  from 
the  combination  of  the  Waxy  and  Sir  Peter  blood,  as  in  Gladiator 
and  Kingston  ;  remarkable  for  blood-like  frames,  Arabian-look- 
ing heads,"  &c.  &c.  "The  Sorcerers,"  descended  from  Mat- 
chem  and  Diomed,  "  are  large,  fast,"  &c.,  "  like  the  Mel- 
bournes  " — "  fit  for  any  work  but  turning  corners."  "  Fast 
enough  for  any  thing,  but  require  time  to  fill  up  their  frames." 
"  Over  a  distance  of  ground,  most  of  these  strains  would  gen- 
erally be  beaten  by  the  stock  of  Whalebone  or  Orville." 

After  this  "  disquisition"  on  breeding,  it  is  left  for  American 
breeders  to  decide  for  themselves,  without  further  counsel,  from 


396  THE    HORSE. 

what  blood  and  what  stallions  they  are  to  look  for  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  best  stock  in  this  country.  Most  of  our  horses  of 
celebrity  are  considerably  advanced  in  age,  as  Trustee,  Glencoe, 
and  Margrave.  Those  most  distinguished  on  our  turf,  that  need 
not  be  named,  are  yet  untried  in  the  stud.  As  for  the  result — 
nous  verrons.  Others  may  furnish  the  "Spirit"  brief  and  intel- 
ligible pedigrees  of  a  score  or  more  of  our  best  American-bred 
stallions,  of  which  I  am  incapable.  Kentucky,  our  present 
"  race-horse  region,"  seems  to  have  benefited  by  crossing  judi- 
ciously the  Sir  Archy  stock  with  good  English  horses  ;  and  both 
with  the  American  Eclipse  blood,  especially  as  transmitted  by 
Medoc.  Observek. 


BEST   FOUR-MILE-HEAT   RACES TIME   AND    WEIGHT EXAMPLES 

LECOMTE,    LEXINGTON,    ETC. 

Mr.  Spirit. — As  our  representatives  say  on  the  floor  of  Con- 
gress, will  you  allow  me  "  to  define  my  position  ?  " 

The  crude  vagaries  and  vaticinations  of  "  Observer,"  shall 
have  farther  notice.  The  "  vagaries,"  as  alleged,  it  has  been  shown 
have  been  creditably  shared  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  In 
respect  to  the  influence  of  weight  upon  the  time  of  a  race,  very 
dift'erent  opinions  have  been  entertained.  In  England  so  much 
importance  is  not  attached  to  time  as  in  our  country ;  more  to 
weio-ht.  With  us,  some  think  "  the  best  horse  America  ever 
produced  "  must  necessarily  run  four  miles  in  the  fastest  time. 

The  fallacy  of  this  is  apparent.  Who  remembers  the  time 
of  many  of  the  best  horses  of  England  and  America  ?  The  fa- 
mous Reel's  fastest  race  was  her  last,  when  beat  by  George 
Martin,  with  less  weight  for  age,  in  almost  the  precise  time  of 
Tally-ho's  two  heats !  Florizel  and  Monarch  were  so  superior 
to  ail  competitors  as  never  to  be  put  to  their  speed  by  any  of 
them.  More  cases  of  the  kind  have  occurred  in  England  than 
in  America.  But  the  system  of  racing  in  the  two  countries  is 
now  so  difterent  as  scarce  to  admit  of  comparison.  In  England, 
by  handicapping,  putting  heavier  weights  on  the  best  horses  to 
produce  an  equality,  the  inferior  ones  most  frequently  win ;  and, 


ECLIPSE    AKD    CHILDERS.  397 

with  light  weights,  thej  make  faster  races  than  their  superiors. 
This  is  well  understood  in  England.  For  example  ;  Inlieritor's 
reputed  race,  at  three  years  old,  86  lbs.,  two  miles  in  3m.  25. 

Without  expressing  an  opinion  relative  to  the  proper  consid- 
eration to  be  attached  to  weight,  both  upon  time  and  the  results, 
two  examples  will  answer  the  pm-pose. 

"  Glaucus,  5  years  old,  8  stone  Tibs. — 119 — September,  1835, 
at  Doncaster,  beat  Muley  Moloch,  5  years  old,  8  stone  10  lbs., 
two  miles,  in  3m.  44s." 

"  Muley  Moloch,  two  days  before,  8  stone  9  lbs.  each,  beat 
Glaucus,  the  same  course  and  the  same  distance,  in  3m.  40s. 

"  These  races  were  timed  by  an  American  gentleman." 

We  avail  ourselves,  from  the  "  American  Turf  Register," — 
vol.  3,  pp.  347,  348,  349 — of  the  opinion  of  one  of  our  ablest 
turf  writers — the  late  Judge  Duval,  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court 
for  the  District  of  Maryland,  in  which  he  resided — touching 
this  subject.  He  says  if  the  accounts  of  Childers  be  true,  he 
"  must  have  run  nearly  half  a  mile  in  four  faster  than  any  other 
horse.  Eclipse  excepted,  which  ever  ran  in  England."  But  he 
doubts  the  statement,  and  points  out  its  absurdity  and  contra- 
diction ;  concluding  with  the  remark,  relative  to  Childers, 
"  whereas  in  his  fastest  race,  when  he  ran  four  miles  in  6m.  48s., 
he  was  moving  at  the  rate  of  little  more  than  51  feet  9  inches 
in  a  second,  and  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  in  Im.  42s." — Be  it  ob- 
served, the  fastest  mile  on  record,  as  having  been  run  in  this 
country,  was  by  Hegira,  with  catch  weight,  near  !N^ew  Orleans, 
in  Im.  42|s.  The  Judge  adds ; — "  Eclipse  ran  at  York  four- 
miles  in  8m.,  carrying  12st.,  168  lbs.,  42  lbs.  more  than  the 
standard  weight  at  this  time.  If  the  calculation  of  old  experi- 
enced sportsmen,  that  the  addition  of  seven  pounds  weight  in 
the  rider  makes  the  difference  of  a  distance,  which  is  240  yards, 
in  a  heat  of  four  miles,  be  correct,  then  the  running  by  Eclipse, 
carying  40  lbs.  more  weight  than  Childers,  will  prove  that 
Eclipse  was  the  swiftest  animal.  If  he  had  carried  only  128  lbs. 
he  would,  according  to  the  computation,  have  run  the  distance 
in  93  seconds  less  tlian  with  168  lbs. ;  this  would  have  reduced 
the  time  from  8m.  to  6m.  27s.  Your  correspondent  entertains 
the  opinion,  that  if  Childers  and  Eclipse  had  flourished  at  the 
same  time,  Eclipse  would  have  proved  himself  superior  to  Chil- 


398 


THE    HORSE. 


ders  ill  a  race  of  four  miles  and  repeat.  Childers  flourished  in 
1T21-2,  Eclipse  in  1T69-T0." — For  their  memoirs  see  American 
Turf  Eegister.  The  Judge  concludes; — "Next  to  these  cele- 
brated racers,  perhaps  Plighflyer  was  the  fleetest  horse  that  has 
been  raised  in  England.  As  it  does  not  appear  that  his  run- 
ning has  ever  been  timed,  no  opinion  approaching  to  certainty 
can  be  hazarded ;  but  as  he  beat  with  ease  Dorimant,  Shark, 
Dragon,  Dictator,  &c.,  which  were  among  the  best  horses  then 
on  the  turf,  it  may  be  assumed  as  a  fact,  that  he  was  the  third 
horse  in  speed  ever  bred  in  England." 

"It  should  be  recollected  that  Lath,  Babraham,  Dismal, 
Dormouse,  Mirza,  and  Eegulus.  were  never  beaten.  We  have 
no  evidence  that  their  running  was  ever  timed." 

According  to  the  memoir  of  Eclipse — from  page  541  to  p. 
547,  vol.  3,  "  American  Turf  Eegister," — it  does  not  appear  that 
in  any  of  his  eighteen  races  his  time  was  at  all  noted,  excepting 
at  York,  at  six  years  old,  as  above  quoted.  "  In  truth,  not  any 
horse  had  a  shadow  of  a  chance  of  winning  against  Eclipse." 
On  more  than  one  occasion  he  distanced  the  whole  field,  and  it 
appeared  he  could  do  so  whenever  he  chose.  "  He  was  never 
beaten,  never  had  a  whip  flourished  over  him,  or  felt  the  tick- 
ling of  a  spur." 

Suppose  our  turfmen  try  the  experiment  of  weight,  as  in  the 
above  cases,  with  their  vaunted  steeds,  and  furnish  the  results 
for  publication. 

Those  deemed  our  best  four-mile  -races  are  as  follows,  ar- 
ranged according  to  the  fastest  time  ; — 

Lecomte,  3  years  11  months  old,  carrying  89  lbs.,  beating 
Lexington,  on  the  Metairie  Course,  near  New  Orleans,  in  Tm. 
26s.— 7m.  38|s. 

Fashion,  5  years  old  111  lbs.,  beating  Boston,  aged,  126  lbs., 
on  the  Union  Course,  near  New  York  city.  Long  Island,  in  7m. 
32As.— 7m.  45s. 

Tally-ho,  4  years  6  months  old,  104  lbs.,  on  the  same  course 
beating  Bostona  and  Free  Trade  in  7m.  33s. — 7m,  43s. — 7m, 
52s. — 8m,  10, — Free  Trade,  winner  of  the  first  heat,  was  dis- 
tanced in  the  second. 

Eclipse,  aged,  126  lbs.,  beating  Henry,  4  years  old,  108  lbs., 


FAST    RACES.  399 

same  course — Hemy  winner  of  the  first  heat — in  Ym.  37^s. — 
7m.  49s.— 8m.  24s. 

Dick  Dotj,  4  years  6  months  old,  100  lbs.,  beating  Little 
Flea  and  others  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  in  Tm.  37^s. — 7m.  46|s. 

Red  Eye,  7  years,  124  lbs.,  beating  Kina,  at  Broad  Eock 
Course — 100  and  more  feet  over  a  mile,  see  late  "  Spirit," — near 
Richmond,  Virginia — IsTina  winning  the  second  heat — in  7m. 
46— 7m.  46^8.— 7m.  49s. 

Red  Eye,  aged,  124  lbs.,  beating  One-Eyed  Joe — winner  of 
the  first  heat^ — and  Fanny  Fern,  at  Baltimore,  in  7m.  43s. — 7m. 
45s. — 8m.  24s.  Red  Eye  had  previously  beat  Joe  in  two  and 
three-mile  heats. 

It  is  left  for  others  to  draw  their  own  conclusions  from  the 
relative  ages  and  weight,  as  well  as  the  courses,  as  to  the  best 
of  these  races  according  to  the  time  made.  Boston  has  won  the 
two  fastest  four- mile  heats  at  ]Srewmarket,  the  first  heat,  in  one 
race,  7m.  50s. ;  and  the  second  heat,  in  the  other,  7m.  52s. 

In  respect  to  Tally-ho's  race  there  has  been  an  erroneous 
statement,  no  doubt  unintentionally,  in  the  reflection  on  some 
of  "  Observer's  fast  races,"  as  follows  ; — "  Between  Free  Trade, 
Tally-ho,  and  Bostona,  Free  Trade  won  the  first  heat,  and  was 
distanced," — the  second. — "Bostona,  then,  who  had  not  rim  for 
the  firsts  came  and  won  the  second,  showing  a  falling  ofi'of  ten 
seconds.  In  the  7m.  26s.  and  7m.  38|s.,  Lecomte  won  both." 
In  this  extract  there  is  this  mistake.  Tally-ho  won  the  second 
heat.  As  stated  at  the  time,  "  his  is  undoubtedly  the  best  race, 
of  four-mile  heats  that  has  been  run  any  where  ;  having  run  for 
every  heat,  and  been  lapsed  with  the  winner  the  heats  he  lost ; 
the  falling  ofi"  was  ten  seconds  between  the  first  and  second 
heat,  nine  seconds  between  the  second  and  third." 

To  draw  correct  deductions,  it  is  essential  the  premises  be 
correct.  Arguing  from  the  record,  "  Observer  "  has  sometimes 
been  prophetic  in  his  predictions  and  opinions.  For  example, 
judging  from  Henry's  race  with  Eclipse,  in  the  then  "  unprece- 
dented "  and  almost  incredible  time,  such  as  many  believed 
would  never  have  its  parallel,  "  Observer  "  predicted  their  time 
would  be  surpassed  on  the  same  course  ;  as  it  has  been  by 
Fashion  and  Boston,  and  by  Tally-ho  and  Bostona ;  and  in  tlie 


400  THE    HCRSE. 

aggregate,  though  not  in  the  first  lieat,  by  Peytona  and  Fash- 
ion— tlie  Last  7m.  39s. — 7m.  43s. 

Again,  in  the  12tli  volume  of  the  "  American  Turf  Eegister, 
for  1S41,"  page  202,  ''  Observer  "  wrote  ;  "  for  renown,  both  on 
the  turf  and  in  the  stud,  in  my  humble  judgment,  none  but  Sir 
Archy  deserves  to  be  regarded  as  the  American  Highfl3^er. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  if  his  incoiyiparahle  descendant,  Boston,  as 
compared  with  our  race-horses  of  the  last  twenty  years,  can  in 
the  stud  supply  Sir  Archy's  unoccupied  place  ;  and  maintain  his 
own  renown,  and  that  of  his — other — illustrious  ancestors,  Flo- 
rizel  and  Timoleon,  that  were  respectively  at  the  head  of  our 
turf;  and,  excepting  himself,  as  good  race-horses  as  ever  run  in 
our  country,  if  not  the  very  hest.  Boston  retires  with  an  unri- 
valled reputation  " — this,  be  it  observed,  preceded  his  covering 
one  season,  and  being  brought  again  upon  the  turf,  and  en- 
countering Fashion  ; — "  one,  too,  much  longer  enjoyed  than  by 
any  '  illustrious  predecessor.'  For  years  he  has  defied  all  op- 
position at  three  and  four-mile  heats.  From  "his  perform- 
ances— as  referred — I  have  but  little  doubt  he  might  have  run 
his  four  miles,  carrying,  too,  126  lbs.,  lower  down  in  the  thirties 
than  a  four-mile  heat  has  ever  heen  achieved  in  this  country. 
The  rate  of  Im.  53s.  a  mile  would  bring  out  a  four-mile  heat  in 
7m.  32."  In  his  subsequent  match  race  with  Fashion,  coming 
in  lapped  with  her,  the  first  heat  was  in  Ym.  32^s.  ;  and  it  is 
now  believed  tliat  when  he  beat  Carter,  the  heat  would  have 
been  some  seconds  faster  than  that  if  his  competitor  had  not 
given  up  his  run  at  the  end  of  three  miles,  in  5m.  30s. 

In  closing  his  article  in  defence  of  Boston,  in  reply  to  "  A 
Young  Turfman,"  Nov.  12th,  1853,  "  Observer "  wrote  ;  he 
"  has  been  again  fortunate  in  the  prediction  that  Ked  Eye  and 
Nina  would  contribute  to  the  fame  of  Boston,  and  that  in 
matches  against  them,  and  others  of  BostorCs  get,  such  as  Dick 
Doty,  Lexington,  Lecomte,  and  Arrow,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  the  get  of  any  other  famed  horse,  either  a  Glencoe,  or  a 
Sovereign,  to  put  against  the  get  of  Boston."  Was  that  a  "  crude 
vaticination,"  especially  as  regards  Lecomte  ?  Has  not  "  A 
Young  Turfman  "  himself  adopted  the  opinion  of  "  Observer  " 
in  respect  to  "  Old  AVhite-Nose  ?  "  He  thinks  "  there  is  nothing 
on  record,  in  this  or  any  other  country,  to  disprove  the  assertion 


LECOMTE.  401 

that  Lecomte's  time — 7m.  26s. — 7m.  38fs. — is  tlie  best  ever 
made  at  four  miles,  weight  for  age."  He  adds ;  "  though  Le- 
comte's time  be  the  best  on  record,  we  believe  few  turfites  who 
saw  the  race  doubt  his  ability  to  have  run  the  first  heat  in  7m. 
24s.,  and  the  second  in  7m.  35s."  This  admission,  respecting  a 
son  of  Boston,  is  surely  creditable  to  the  candor  of  "  A  Young 
Turfman." 

From  the  description  of  him  by  "  Equus,"  for  which  your 
correspondent  feels  obliged,  it  seems  Lecomte  resembles  his 
sire  in  form,  color,  and  marks — even  the  white  nose — and  a 
white  leg,  like  his  ancestor,  Eclipse,  to  which,  by  the  way,  no 
horse  now  upon  the  turf  is  nearer  related — though,  in  some  re- 
spects, smaller  than  his  lineal  ancestors,  Timoleon  and  Boston, 
it  seems  Lecomte  is  near  the  size  and  dimensions  of  American 
Eclipse. 

"  According  to  "  Equus,"  the  "  average  time  of  each  mile  of 
the  first  heat  was  Im.  Sl^s.  ;  the  last  two  miles  of  the  second 
heat  is  3m.  38|s. ;  the  three  last  miles  of  the  first  heat  in  5m. 
33s. ;  the  four  miles  in  7m.  26s.  ;  and  the  third  mile  of  the  sec- 
ond heat  in  Im.  46s. ; "  concluding  that  "  the  average  of  the 
heats  beat  the  fastest  time  on  record,  even  in  a  single  heat,  or 
a  dash  of  four  miles," — "  that  the  last  two  miles  of  the  last  heat 
has  never  been  beaten  but  three  times,  even  in  races  of  two-mile 
heats," — "  that  the  time  of  the  last  three  miles  of  the  first  heat 
has  never  been  beaten  or  equalled,  even  at  heats  of  three  miles ; " 
and  that  "  the  seventh  mile  has  never  been  beaten  but  three 
times," — in  mile  heats — "  and  then  only  by  half  a  second — Le- 
comte himself  being  one  that  beat  it,  beating  Conrad  the  Cor- 
sair, who  subsequently  made  it  in  a  third  heat — Flying  Dutch- 
man being  the  first  horse  that  ever  made  it."  But  does  not 
"  Equus  "  overlook  Hegira's  mile  in  Im.  42|8.,  and  the  recent 
performances  of  Charles  Bell  in  Im.  48s. — Ira.  45-|-s."  "  Equus  " 
thinks  their  time  "  will  never  be  equalled,  unless  "  these  sur- 
passing sons  of  Boston,  "  Lecomte  and  Lexington,  meet  again," 
under  similar  circumstances;  as  in  their  four-mile  race,  "  the 
fastest  mile,  the  fastest  two  miles,  the  fastest  three  miles,  and 
the  fastest  four  miles  were  made  "  during  the  distinguished 
meetings  of,  "  three  weeks."  Tliey  too,  "  have  never  been 
beaten  except  by  each  other." 
Vol.  I.   -26 


402  TUK    UlKSE. 

In  detiuing  mj  position,  I  can  subscribe  to  all  this ;  and 
that  they  have  run  the  fastest  four  miles  of  any  ever  run  in  this 
country,  by  six  seconds  ;  and  yet  think  it  "  questionable  "  that 
either  of  them  is  "  the  best  horse  ever  produced  in  America/' 
To  say  nothing  more  of  Sir  Archy,  or  their  sire  Boston — their 
other  ancestor,  Florizel,  like  English  Eclipse,  knew  nothing  of 
whip  or  spur,  frequently  distancing  renowned  competitors,  and 
retiring  from  the  turf  when  no  other  opponent  would  meet  liim  ; 
this,  too,  in  the  days  of  such  "  cracks  "  as  the  Maid  of  the  Oaks, 
of  Post  Boy,  of  First  Consul,  and  of  Oscar  and  others ;  not  one 
of  them  daring  to  accept  a  challenge  of  $10,000  a  side.  Le- 
comte's  other  ancestor,  Timoleon,  was  so  superior  to  his  contem- 
poraries, Reality,  Lady  Lightfoot,  and  others,  in  their  palmy 
days,  that  "  the  Napoleon  of  the  Turf,"  the  late  AV.  R.  Johnson, 
has  said  of  him :  "  I  have  seen  him  run  all  the  races  in  Vir- 
ginia he  ever  ran ;  his  performances,  from  one  to  four-mile 
heats,  has  been  such  as  would  do  credit  to  the  best  runner  in 
either  this  country  or  Europe."  To  this  day,  the  fastest  race  of 
mile  heats,  at  Newmarket,  the  spring  he  was  three  yeai's  old, 
was  won  by  Timoleon  in  Im.  4Ts. — Im.  48s.,  distancing  the 
field  the  second  heat.  The  preceding  day  he  had  won  a  match 
i-ace  of  half  a  mile.  Such  authority  has  weight  with  "  Ob- 
server." Still  he  sees  no  reason  why  Lecomte  and  Lexington 
may  not  be  as  far  superior  to  all  of  the  American  horses  as 
Childers  and  Eclipse  were  reputed  to  be  in  England.  But  he 
does  not  perceive  that  such  a  proposition  is  yet  proven. 

One  of  "  Observer's  "  vagaries  was  shared  by  Larkin — and 
he  saic  the  great  race  between  the  wonderful  sons  of  Boston — 
who  concludes  his  statement  as  follows  ;  "  there  is  a  great  di- 
versity of  opinion  among  all  classes  of  the  racing  and  sporting 
community  in  regard  to  the  question  of  superiorty  between  the 
two  horses,  and  if  they  were  started  on  a  match  to-morrow,  it  is 
very  hard  to  say  which  would  be  the  favorite." 

Although  admitting  "  they  are  two  of  the  best  horses  that 
ever  appeared  on  the  American  Turf,"  west  of  the  Alleghanies  ; 
and  that  they  are  now  superior  to  any  horse  upon  the  Amer- 
ican Turf ;  yet  "  Observer,"  from  all  he  has  heard,  and  for  the 
reasons  he  has  assigned,  is  not  prepared  to  say  that  either  "Le- 
comte "  or  Lexington  is  "  the  hest  race-horse  America  has  ever 


HORSKS    OF    THE    OLDEN    TIME.  403 

produced."  Some  weight  having  been  attached  to  tiis  opinion, 
he  is  induced  to  repeat  this  declaration,  in  thus  defining  his 
position.  As  Brutus  said  to  Cassius,  "  an  older,  not  a  better." 
"  Did  /say  better  ?  "     Non  ego.  Observer. 


TO    "EPSUS,       of    ENGLAND. 

The  English  blood  horse  was  known  in  Yirginia,  our  ancient 
dominion,  the  mother  of  States,  and  of  our  best  race-horses 
formerly — heretofore  considered  our  "  race-horse  region  " — long 
before  any  Stud  Book  appeared  in  England,  the  pursuits  of  the 
turf  having  been  introduced  to  Virginia  during  the  reign  of  the 
Stuarts ;  but,  until  within  a  few  years,  pedigrees,  often  lost,  de- 
pended, almost  wholly,  ujDon  the  mere  certificates  of  the  gen- 
tlemen of  the  olden  time.  Their  blood  stock  originally  de- 
scended from  the  best  of  England,  the  basis  of  the  Yirginia 
race-horse  during  the  days  of  the  Colonial  government ;  when 
"  Fearnought  was  the  Godolphin  Arabian  of  Yirginia,"  though 
"  Jolly  Koger  had  a  prior  claim  to  that  distinction,"  with  whose 
name,  and  that  of  Janus,  many  of  our  thoroughbred  pedigrees 
terminate.  "  The  judicious  breeders  of  the  present  day,  when 
they  have  the  ancient  crosses  of  Fearnought,  Jolly  Roger,  Mon- 
key, Othello,  Silver  Eye,  and  Morton's  Traveller,  in  their  pedi- 
grees, want  no  other  aid  of  foreign  crosses,  to  insure  speed, 
bottom,  lastingness,  and  ability  to  carry  heavy  weights." 

For  near  a  third  of  a  century  succeeding  the  Revolution  that 
separated  the  Colonies  from  Great  Britain,  the  following  Eng- 
lish horses  contributed  chiefly  towards  the  improvement  of  the 
American  race-horse — viz.,  Bedford,  Citizen,  Clockfast,  Dare 
Devil,  Diomed,  Gabriel,  Medley,  Messenger,  Saltram,  Shark, 
and  Spread  Eagle.  Other  importations  during  the  same  period, 
such  as  Buzzard,  Chance,  Clifden,  Cormorant,  Dragon,  Oscar, 
Precipitate,  Sir  Harry,  Whip,  &c.,  were  not  equally  successful, 
as  stallions,  in  Yirginia.  Diomed,  Saltram,  Sir  Harry,  and 
Spread  Eagle,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  Derby  winners. 
Buzzard  had  the  first  celebrity  on  the  turf  and  in  the  stud  in 
England,  especially  as  the  lineal  ancestor  of  Selim,  Castrel, 
Saltram,  Bay  Middleton,  the  Queen  of  Trumps,  Flying  Dutch- 


404  THE    IIOKSE. 

man,  and  other  cracks,  many  of  them  winners  of  tlie  Derby 
and  of  the  Oaks.  Buzzard  would  be  scarcely  remembered  in 
American  pedigrees  but  for  his  son  Hepliestion,  out  of  Sir 
Archy's  dam,  and  as  the  sire  to  the  dam  of  Woodpecker,  the 
sire  of  Grey  Eagle.  Many  of  our  pedigrees,  including  that  of 
Grey  Eagle,  trace  to  Col.  Tasker's  Selima,  by  the  Godolphin 
Arabian,  or  to  Mr.  Carter  Braxton's  Kitty  Fisher,  by  Cade, 
mares  of  the  first  distinction  both  on  our  turf  and  in  the  stud. 

The  excellence  of  the  breed  of  our  race-horses  is  likely  to 
be  perpetuated  by  the  more  recent  importations  of  such  horses 
as  Priam,  Barefoot,  Margrave,  Eowton,  St.  Giles,  Squirrel — six 
Derby  and  St.  Leger  winners — Zinganee,  Leviathan,  Glencoe, 
Trustee,  Riddlesworth,  Belshazzar,  Sarpedon,  Consul,  Emanci- 
pator, Xonplus,  Tranby,  Cetus,  Chateau  Margaux,  Fylde,  Luz- 
borougli.  Skylark,  Monarch,  Sovereign,  &c.  The  last  two 
names  are  not  found  in  the  English  Stud  Book.  They  were 
from  the  Hampton  Court  Stud.  Monarch,  on  account  of  his 
brilliant  turf  achievements  in  South  Carolina,  winning  all  his 
races,  is  believed  to  be  tlie  best  son  of  Priam,  out  of  Delphine, 
by  Whisker;  and  Soverei£n,  by  Emilius,  out  of  George  lY.'s 
famous  race-mare  Fleur-de-Lis,  the  best  race-horse  of  her  day 
in  England. 

TJie  application  of  the  j^receding  remarks  to  the  origin  and 
blood  of  our  race-horses  will  be  now  made  to  those  fast  and 
stout  competitors,  Boston  and  Fashion,  whose  race  of  four-mile 
heats  is  regarded,  with  us,  as  among  the  best  on  record  ;  respect- 
ing which  an  intelligent  commentator,  "  Larkin,"  remarks — "  In 
a  comjjarison  between  Boston  and  Fashion,  under  equal  circum- 
stances, the  papers  are  rather  against  Fashion.  When  called 
on,  she  could  not  run  a  heat  in  7.40,  with  her  weight,  at  eight 
years  old.  Boston,  when  nine  years — carrying  5  lbs.  more 
than  Fashion — ran  a  first  heat  in  Y.33,  and  a  second  in  7.46. 
Fashion,  the  wiimer  of  the  match  race,  was  five  years  old,  and 
carried  111  lbs."  However,  Henry,  by  Sir  Archy,  dam  by 
Diomed,  grandam  by  Bell  Air— son  of  Medley— when  barely 
four  years  old,  carrying  108  lbs.,  had  the  honor  to  "  show  the 
way  to  the  thirties  "  in  his  match  race  with  American  Eclipse, 
four-mile  heats,  run  in  7.37^ — 7.49.  Eclipse,  aged,  126  lbs., 
the  winner  of  the  second  and  third  heats,  the  last  in  8.24,  was 


THE    LAST    KACKS.  405 

by  the  Yirginia-bred  Duroc,  son  of  Diomed,  dam  by  English 
Messenger,  out  of  an  English  mare,  by  PotSos,  son  of  Eclipse. 
Boston's  achievements  are  referred  to  in  the  13th  volume 
of  the  "  American  Turf  "Register,"  thus — "  No  horse  ever  had 
a  higher  reputation,  or  sustained  it  more  nobly.  His  career 
has  been  brilliant  beyond  all  comparison  ;  for  years  he  had  no 
equal,  and  he  leaves  behind  him  no  superior.  He  has  started 
in  over  forty  races,  and  has  won  about  thirty  at  four-mile  heats 
alone.  He  has  won  in  stakes  and  purses,  for  his  owners,  nearly 
sixty  tliousand  dollars  ;  while  the  amount  he  has  won  for  his 
different  backers  would  probably  exceed  half  a  million  !  "  The 
time  of  Boston's  race  with  Fashion  has  never  been  rivalled,  ex- 
cept by  his  own  offspring — ^Tally-ho  and  Bostona  on  the  Union 
Course,  New  York  State ;  Red  Eye  and  Nina  near  Richmond, 
Virginia;  and  lately,  by  Lecomte  and  Lexington,  near  New 
Orleans. 


THE    K AGING    AT    NEW    ORLEANS. 

EEFLECTI0K8    ON   THE    LAST    RACES    OF     "  THE   BEST    TIME    EVEE    MADE,"    AT 
THEEE    AND   FOTJE-MILE   HEATS,    WON   BY    SONS    OF   BOSTON. 

The  "  record,"  both  as  regards  the  past,  and  now  for  the 
present,  puts  an  end  to  "  the  Boston  controversy." 

The  following  extracts  are  made  from  late  New  Orleang 
papers. 

The  best  time  ever  made — Seven  minutes  and  twenty- 
six  seconds. — Lecomte,  the  Red  River  horse,  now  stands  the 
champion  of  the  world ;  and  who  is  able  to  tear  the  laurels 
from  his  noble  brow  ?  The  fastest  time  on  record  was  made  by 
Fashion,  on  the  Long  Island  Course,  in  1838,  when  she  beat 
Boston,  the  sire  of  Lecomte,  in  7.321  The  next  best  time  was 
made  by  Reel,  the  dam  of  Lecomte,  over  a  Louisiana  course ; 
she  won  a  heat  in  7.32f ;  and  George  Martin  ran  a  heat  on  one 
of  our  courses  in  7.33.  Yesterday's  race  marks  a  new  era  in 
the  turf  calendar  ;  and  hereafter  when  you  speak  of  time,  you 
must  say,  "  fastest  time  on  record." — Lecomte^  hy  Boston,  out 
of  Reel,  won  a  heat  on  the  Sth  of  April,  1854,  over  the  Metairie 
Course,  State  of  Louisiana,  in  7.26. 


406  THE    HORSE. 

The  Great  Race. — The  race  of  yesterday  was  the  greatest 
and  most  brilliant  one  that  has  ever  occurred  in  America.  The 
result  will  produce  a  profound  impression  throughout  the  coun- 
try. The  glories  of  Eclipse,  of  Boston,  of  Fashion,  of  all  the 
other  classic  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  turf,  must  pale  before 
the  glory  of  the  modern  champions,  who,  yesterday,  made  the 
most  marvellous  display  of  speed  on  record.  Here  is  feasible 
proof  that  this  is  an  age  of  progress.  We  have  not  degene- 
rated in  horse  flesh,  if  we  have  in  a  great  many  other  matters. 
We,  of  this  much  calumniated  century  and  epoch,  boldly  fling 
Lexington  and  Lecomte  into  the  faces  of  preceding  generations, 
and  ask  them  if  they  can  beat  that  time — the  first  four  miles  in 
seven  minutes  twenty- six  seconds,  and  second  heat  of  four  miles 
in  seve7i  minutes  and  tJiirty-seven  seconds?  Shades  of  John 
Eandolph,  and  William  R.  Johnson,  and  of  your  contempora- 
ries— who  were  so  intensely  excited  by  the  great  contest  be- 
tween the  North  and  South,  when  Henry  and  Eclipse  decided  a 
great  question  of  sectional  pride — will  ye  not  be  startled  in  your 
shadowy  retreats  by  the  wonderful  figures  which  were  yesterday 
exhibited  from  the  judges'  stand  on  the  Metairie?  Where  now 
is  the  great  time  of  Boston  and  Fashion.  T.32i  ;  of  George  Mar- 
tin and  Miss  Foot,  Y.34 ;  of  Grey  Medoc,  7.35,  over  a  better 
track  than  the  Metairie  presented  yesterday  ? 

It  was  a  beautiful  race  from  the  start.  The  great  display  of 
Lexington  on  Saturday,  when  he  so  easily  beat  a  horse  which 
came  to  this  city  with  more  reputation  than  any  horse  in  the 
United  States  enjoyed,  had  made  him  a  general  favorite.  The 
bets  were  on  him  against  the  field,  and,  in  many  cases,  two  to 
one  were  ventured  on  him  against  Lecomte ;  Eeube  was  but 
little  regarded,  and  was  thrown  in,  to  take  the  chances  of  any 
accidents,  or  in  case  that  three  heats  were  run,  with  a  hope 
that  his  endurance  might  tell  in  so  long  a  stretch.  The  contest 
was  a  noble  and  close  one  between  Boston's  two  gallant  colts. 

In  Ihe  first  heat  they  ran  regularly,  Lecomte  a  few  lengths 
ahead  all  through,  and  winning  the  heat  in  Y.26.  After  this 
the  bets  were  decidedly  in  his  favor,  two  and  even  three  to  one. 
The  second  heat  was  a  varied  and  most  exciting  contest.  Lex- 
ington got  the  start,  and  kept  it  until  the  second  mile,  when 
they  closed  in  the  quarter  stretch ;  after  a  prodigious  struggle, 


LECOMTE  S    KACE.  407 

Lecomte  sliot  ahead,  and  continued  gaining,  until  half  waj  in 
the  third  mile,  a  formidable  gap  was  made  between  them,  pro- 
ducing serious  apprehensions  that  it  would  be  a  contest  between 
Lexington  and  Eeube,  which  should  be  worse  distanced.  But 
suddenly  Lexington  gathered  himself  up,  and  putting  out  all 
his  power,  closed  upon  Lecomte,  and  in  the  last  mile  the  strug- 
gle became  a  very  close  and  intensely  exciting  one,  Lecomte 
coming  in  about  a  length  or  so  ahead  of  his  rival. 

The  enthusiasm  and  hurrahs  of  the  multitude  at  the  termi- 
nation of  the  race  denoted  not  so  much  the  general  satisfaction 
in  the  victory  of  Lecomte,  as  in  the  brilliant  character  of  the 
contest,  and  the  splendid  achievements  of  both  horses.  Two 
more  equal  champions  could  not  be  pitted  against  each  other. 
The  old  Boston  blood  is  conspicuous  in  both ;  they  are  the  no- 
blest living  representatives  of  the  numerous  progeny  of  that 
noble  old  patriarch  of  the  turf  in  the  United  States.  Much 
is  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  fine  training  of  these  two  splendid 
horses,  under  the  direction  of  Colonel  Bingaman  and  General 
Wells,  in  whose  stables  Lecomte  and  Lexington  have  been 
trained,  and  who,  with  Messrs.  Kenner,  Minor,  and  other  plant- 
ers of  Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  gave  more  attention  to  the 
care  and  training  of  their  fine  bloods  than  any  other  gentlemen 
in  the  United  States.  The  Boston  blood  is  pretty  certain  to 
display  its  excellence.  Louisiana  may  now  boast  of  having  the 
two  fastest  and  greatest  horses  in  America,  or  that  ever  ap- 
peared on  the  turf  in  this  country. 

Far  be  it  from  one  who  entered  the  arena  in  defence  of  Bos- 
ton, his  blood,  and  his  progeny,  to  detract  at  all  from  the  fame 
of  "  Lecomte,  by  Boston,  out  of  Reel " — the  winner,  last  year, 
of  mile  heats  in  the  fastest  time  on  our  record,  and  also  on  the 
Metairie  Course,  in  1.45| — 1.46,  and  without  being  urged  at 
all — or  to  question  that  he  has  run  four  miles,  and  four-mile 
heats,  "  in  the  fastest  time  on  record  ;  "  yet,  before  the  conclu- 
sion is  admitted,  that  Lecomte's  is  the  '''hest  race"  that  has 
been  run  in  America,  or  that  he  "stands  proudly  before  the 
world  as  the  best  race-horse  ever  produced  on  the  turf,"  the  re- 
cord should  be  consulted  in  respect  to  some  other  races,  as  run 
by  Fashion  and  Boston,  Tally-ho  and  Bostona,  Red  Eye  and 


408  THE    HORSE. 

Nina,  and  by  Eclipse  and  Henry.  It  will  be  discovered,  espe- 
cially at  the  most  northern  course,  "  The  Union,"  near  the  city 
of  New  York,  that  more  weight  was  carried  for  age,  and  for 
colts,  too,  nearly  of  the  same  age,  and  that  there  was  a  shorter 
interval  between  the  heats  in  those  races  than  in  Lecomte's — con 
siderations  that  may  fully  compensate  for  the  difference  in  the 
time  as  made  at  the  Union  and  the  Metairie  Course.  We  will 
now  pass  by  those — until  now  the  fastest  on  record — to  the  ear- 
lier acliievement  of  Henry,  son  of  Sir  Archy,  as  compared  with 
that  of  Lecomte.  At  the  time  of  each  race,  there  was  scarcely 
a  month's  difference  in  their  ages,  if  as  much.  Henry,  as  a 
four-year-ojd,  in  May,  carried  108  lbs.  Lecomte,  as  a  three- 
year-old,  in  April,  86  lbs.  Had  Henry's  been  in  April,  as  a 
three-year-old,  instead  of  May,  as  a  four-year-old,  with  the  dif- 
ference of  weight,  who  can  doubt  that  he  would  have  beat 
Eclipse  ?  Non  ego.  Let  Lecomte  take  up  108  lbs.  Who  can 
doubt  that  he  cannot  come  within  ten  seconds  of  his  late  race  ? 
Non  ego.  Keube,  of  the  age,  but  not  with  quite  the  weight  of 
Eclipse,  ran  in  as  good  time  as  Eclipse,  in  his  great  race. 
"  Eeube's  time,  the  first  heat,  Y.37,"  and,  in  the  second  heat, 
was  about  equal  to  Eclipse's  7.49,  although  the  red  flag  was 
shaken  in  the  face  of  Keube.  But,  in  four-mile  heats,  at  the 
Union,  the  interval  between  the  heats  is  thirty  minutes,  whereas, 
at  the  Metairie,  it  is  45  minutes. 

Let  the  rules  of  the  Union  Course  be  applied,  at  the  Me- 
tairie, to  Lecomte,  and  it  is  very  questionable,  at  least  such  is 
the  opinion  of  some,  whether  Lecomte  will  do  better  than 
Henry,  with  the  weight  he  carried  when  of  the  same  age  ;  and 
it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  from  Lecomte,  that,  at  nine  years 
old,  he  can  take  up  Boston's  weight — 126  lbs. — as  carried  in  his 
match  race  with  Fashion,  and  that  the  son  should  then  surpass 
the  achievement  of  the  sire.  Until  these  things  are  done,  the 
writer  questions  the  justice  of  the  claim  for  Lecomte,  brilliant  as 
his  achievement  is — first  heat  of  four  miles  in  T.26  ;  second 
heat,  7.38| ;  the  third  mile  of  the  last  heat  in  1.46,  and  the  last 
two  miles  in  3.38| ! — that  he  is  "  the  hest  race-horse  ever  pro- 
duced "  in  America,  to  say  nothing  about  England.  Boston's 
name  must  still  stand  "  foremost  on  the  file." 

Your  correspondent,  Mr.  "  Spirit,"  is  neither  "  a  prophet  nor 


OBSERVER.  409 

a  son  of  a  prophet,"  yet  lie  has  been  singularly  fortunate,  as 
you  may  recollect,  in  some  of  his  vaticinations — not  only  about 
"  Boston  and  his  get,"  but  in  one  of  them — as  on  another  occa- 
sion— having  actually  ^placed  Lexington,  Lecomte,  and  High- 
lander, as  in  the  great  stake  race,  remai-king,  however,  in 
another  article,  that,  judging  from  the  blood  and  performances 
of  Lecomte,  he  thought  it  "  not  unlikely  "  he  would  win,  having 
years  ago  predicted  in  the  "  Spirit,"  long  before  it  was  accom- 
plished, that  the  day  would  come  when  the  time  of  Eclij)se  and 
Henry  would  be  beat  at  the  Union.  Subsequent  events  speak 
for  themselves. 

However,  it  is  undeniable  that  Lecomte  has  run  the  fastest 
four  miles  on  our  record,  and  it  may  be  questionable  if  it  can 
be  surpassed  by  any  horse  in  the  country  with  a  feather.  At 
three-mile  heats.  Arrow,  another  son  of  Boston,  has  surpassed, 
in  like  manner,  the  time  of  all  other  races  at  that  distance,  in 
accomplishing  5.33 — 5.36— 5.43|.  Blonde  may  yet  prove  "an 
ugly  customer  "  to  Lecomte,  having  beaten  with  ease,  in  nearly 
as  good  time,  the  competitor  of  Arrow,  in  the  last  fast  race. 

Instead  of  speculations,  amateurs  at  a  distance  from  Louis- 
iana would  be  more  gratified  in  learning  oi facts  connected  with 
cracks ;  besides  all  the  minutiae  of  their  exploits  and  blood,  to 
have  descriptions  of  the  horses  themselves — their  size,  color, 
beauty,  form,  points,  &c.  Observer. 


THE  TRUE  UTILITY 

OF    THE    THOROUGHBRED    RACE-HORSE. 

If  the  advantage  to  be  derived  from  the  thoroughbred  horse 
depended  on  no  more  than  his  applicability  to  the  turf  and  hia 
fitness  for  racing  purposes,  I  should  not  have  assigned  to  him  the 
prominent  place,  which  he  occupies  in  this  work. 

In  fact,  the  race-course  was  not,  in  the  beginning,  so  much 
as  thought  of  as  a  scene  for  the  display  of  his  high  qualities ; 
much  less  was  racing  considered  as  an  end,  for  which  the 
Eastern  horse  was  imported  into  Europe,  by  our  ancestors. 

It  was  for  the  improvement  of  the  native  stock  of  horses,  in 
the  various  European  kingdoms,  by  giving  to  them  speed  and 
endurance,  in  which  points  no  other  breed  can  compare  with 
them,  that  the  Asiatic  and  North- African  horse  was  so  eagerly 
sought  by  the  monarchs,  especially  of  England,  during  the 
seventeenth,  and  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

At  first,  the  race-course  was  resorted  to,  solely,  as  a  method 
of  testing  the  prevalence  or  superiority,  in  certain  animals  or 
breeds  of  animals,  of  those  qualities  of  speed  and  endurance, 
which  can,  by  no  other  known  method,  be  so  completely,  so 
accurately  and  so  fairly  brought  to  the  test. 

Soon  after  the  introduction  of  the  thoroughbred-horse,  this 
process  of  testing  his  qualities  grew  into  a  favorite  sport  with 
all  classes  of  persons  in  England.  Race  courses  multiplied, 
throughout  the  kingdom,  and  racing  became  an  established  na- 
tional institution. 

Thenceforth,  in  some  degree,  the  objects  of  the  possessors 


OBJECT    OF   RACING.  411 

and  breeders  of  race-horses  underwent  a  change  ;  and  what  had 
been  the  means  became  more  or  less  the  end.  Horses,  in  a 
high  form,  of  the  purest  and  most  favorite  strains  of  blood,  were 
eagerly  sought,  and  commanded  large  pi'ices,  for  the  purposes 
of  sport  and  honorable  competition,  as  was  the  case  in  ancient 
Greece,  at  the  period  of  the  Olympic  games. 

At  a  yet  later  date,  a  second  change  of  object  has  taken  place ; 
and,  with  but  few  exceptions,  the  thoroughbred  horse  is  now 
kept,  both  in  England  and  this  country,  for  the  paramount  pur- 
poses of  money-making,  either  by  the  actual  winning  of  his 
j)rizes,  or  by  his  services  in  the  stud,  after  his  racing  career  is 
finished;  for  either,  or  both,  of  which  objects,  the  highest 
development  of  the  two  qualities  of  speed  and  endurance — 
which  can  only  exist  in  conjunction  with  thorough  blood — ■ 
coupled  with  form  and  size,  are  absolutely  required. 

Still,  in  England,  especially,  the  first  end  of  improving  the 
breed  of  the  general  horse,  has  never  been  lost  sight  of ;  and 
racing  has  been  always  so  constantly  regarded,  as  the  only  me- 
thod of  inducing  the  maintenance  of  studs  of  thoroughbreds, 
and  the  continuance  of  a  supply  of  pure  blood,  that  it  has  been 
continually  supj)orted  by  government,  as  a  national  institution ; 
and  benefit-prizes,  varying  in  amount  from  250  to  500  dollars, 
liave  been  given  to  be  run  for,  annually,  or  biennially,  at  many 
established  race-courses,  in  every  county  of  England,  to  the 
aggregate  of  many  thousand  pounds  sterling. 

Eacing  and  race-courses,  therefore,  are  still,  as  they  were 
intended  to  be  from  the  first,  the  best  and  only  mode  of  really 
improving  the  general  stock  of  any  country ;  although  the  ani- 
mals employed  may  be  kept,  merely,  or  generally,  for  the 
gratification  of  cupidity  and  the  excitement  of  the  contest — the 
race-courses  patronized  only  by  the  seekers  of  an  amusement, 
in  which  none  but  fools  and  fanatics  can  find  any  thing,  intrin- 
sically, blamable  or  demoralizing.  If  it  be  admitted  that 
racing  and  race-courses  are  subject  to  occasional  abuses,  that  is 
only  to  admit  them  not  to  be  exempt  from  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  every  thing  human,  not  excluding  religion  itself.  That 
they  are  peculiarly,  or  more  than  other  institutions,  involving 
large  congregations  of  men  and  women,  subject  to  such  abuses, 
is,  in  no  respect,  demonstrable  or  true ;    and  I  will  defy  any 


412  THE    HORSE. 

person  who  has  ever  witnessed  a  general  training  in  the  stea- 
diest and  most  straitlaced  of  the  Kew  England  States,  or  a 
camp-meeting,  any  where,  to  say  that  he  has  not  been  directly 
cognizant  of  more  gross  immorality  at  either  of  these,  than  he 
ever  beheld  on  a  regularly  established  race-course. 

Two  charges,  esi^ecially,  of  gambling  and  of  cruelty,  have 
been  hronght  against  racing  and  race-courses,  both  charges 
irrationally  and  unjustly  ;  although  most  of  the  State  Legislatures 
of  America — whicli  seem  to  have  an  especial  mission  for  legislat- 
ing about  every  thing  wliich  ought  to  be  let  alone,  and  for 
letting  alone  every  thing  which  ought  to  be  the  subject  of  legis- 
lation— have  assumed  the  right  of  passing  judgment,  on  both 
these  charges ;  and  prohibiting,  or  to  the  utmost  discouraging 
a  noble  sport,  directly  tending  to  the  improvement  of  the  first 
and  most  valuable  domestic  animal,  and  the  development  of 
the  wealth,  the  resources  and  the  power  of  the  nation,  and  the 
manhood  of  its  urban  and  rural  population. 

The  first  charge  is  false,  as  belonging  particularly  to  racing, 
or  being  especially  stimulated  by  it. 

Men,  it  is  well  known,  wlio  wish  to  gamble,  loiU  gamble,  on 
any  thing  or  nothing.  Tliey  may  certainly  bet  on  horses  run- 
ning on  the  track,  and  do  so — but  they  bet  also  on  every  ath- 
letic game  ;  on  many  scientific  games,  in  which  chance  has  no 
perceptible  influence  ;  on  tlieir  own  powers  ;  on  elections ;  on 
casual  events  ;  on  drawing  long  straws  ;  on  the  running  of  wa- 
ter drops  down  a  window  pane. 

I  have  never  heard  it  proposed  to  put  an  end  to  elections, 
because  men  sometimes  bet  on  them,  although  betting,  in  such 
cases,  is  not  merely  gambling,  but  barefaced  bribery  of  the 
worst  kind,  and  as  such  intended — yet  it  would  scarcely  be  more 
absurd  to  prohibit  elections,  than  to  prohibit  contests  of  *'w?imw^ 
horses — while  contests  of  trotting  horses,  involving  worse  and 
more  fraudulent  gambling,  fourfold  cruelty,  and  infinitely  more 
disorderly  assemblages,  are  freely  permitted — for  the  alleged 
reasons. 

As  to  the  allegation  of  cruelty,  it  is  palpably  childish,  ab- 
surd, and — it  is  not  too  much  to  say— false  in  the  knowledge  of 
those  who  make  the  charge.  I  have  been  an  habitual  attend- 
ant at  all  the  principal  race-courses  of  my  native  land,  and  of 


RACING    NOT    CRUEL.  413 

this  country,  since  I  was  a  boy  of  fourteen  years,  and  I  can  af- 
firm that  I  never  saw  a  single  case  of  a  horse  cruelly  overworked, 
to  dire  extremity,  exhaustion,  or  death  on  a  public  established 
race-course,  in  my  life  ;  nor  a  single  instance  of  a  hoi'se  barba- 
rously and  unmercifully  punished,  in  order  to  force  him  to  exert 
himself,  a  moment  after  it  was  notorious  that  he  was  doing  his 
utmost. 

I  utterly  disbelieve  that  any  one  else  ever  saw  either  thing — 
unless  in  the  instance  of  some  most  rare  and  ahnost  impossible 
exception.  No  concourse  of  people  would  endure  the  spec- 
tacle— no  owner  of  a  horse,  for  his  own  sake,  would  ever  al- 
low a  jockey  to  ride  again,  who  punished  his  horse  brutally  and 
needlessly,  for  reasons  which  are  obvious. 

There  is  more  cruelty  practised  on  the  roads,  and  on  trotting 
courses,  daily,  in  matching  horses  against  time,  and  over-driving 
them  against  one  another,  than  there  is  yearly  on  all  the  race- 
courses in  the  world. 

I  know  no  case,  and  I  doubt  if  one  ever  occurred,  of  a  race- 
horse being  ridden  to  death,  on  an  established  race-course. 
There  is  scarce  a  year  on  which  two  or  three  trotters  are  not 
driven  or  ridden  to  death  in  time  matches,  on  the  track  or  on 
the  road — not  a  day  in  which  twenty  wretched  hacks  and  omni- 
bus horses  are  not  worked  and  flogged  to  death,  on  the  roads 
and  streets  of  every  large  city  in  the  United  States.  And  it  is 
safe  to  assert,  that  there  is  more  barbarous,  wanton,  and  profit- 
less torture  of  punishment  inflicted  on  draft  horses,  every  day, 
in  every  capital  city  whatsoever  than  in  the  course  of  a  year  on 
every  race-course  in  the  known  world. 

And  these  facts  are,  or  ought  to  be,  very  well  known  to  the 
sleek,  legislatorial  pharisees,  who  annually  prohibit  racing, 
uot — as  Macaulay  well  observed  of  the  Puritans  in  regard  to 
bear-baiting — not  because  racing  gives  pain  to  the  horses,  but 
because  it  gives  pleasure  to  the  people  who  uphold  it. 

The  prices  of  racers,  of  high  blood  and  in  a  high  form,  as  a 
first  condition,  and  the  secondary  expenses  of  keeping  up  an 
establishment  for  the  purpose  of  breeding,  conditioning,  and 
maintaining  large  studs  of  thoroughbreds,  are  so  great,  that  the 
possession  of  such  establisliments  is  necessarily  limited,  in  all 
countries,  to  the  wealthiest  classes  ;  and  is  yet  farther  confined. 


414  THE    HORSE. 

in  America,  by  the  necessity  that  race-horse  proprietors  must, 
almost  as  a  sine  quanon,  be  country  gentlemen,  as  opposed  to 
the  dwellers  of  cities ;  which  is  not  at  present  usually  the  case 
with  the  wealthiest,  except  in  the  Southern  States, 

The  proiits  derivable  from  the  mere  service  of  stallions  are 
BO  small,  and  the  comparative  want  of  use  for  mares  and  fillies 
of  thorough-blood,  except  for  turf-purposes  and  for  becoming 
the  progenitrixes  of  racers,  renders  them  so  unsalable  for  gen- 
eral objects,  that  no  one  would  dream  of  keeping  blood-stock, 
wdilch  he  would  necessarily  do  at  a  loss,  were  he  not  allowed 
to  remunerate  himself,  either  by  his  winnings,  or — what  is  the 
same  thing — his  hopes  of  winning  on  the  turf,  or  by  the  plea- 
sure and  pride  he  takes  in  the  performances  and  triumphs  of 
his  animals. 

This  he  can  do  only  by  means  of  racing  and  race-courses. 
And  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  any  considerable  number  of  men  of 
wealtli,  incurring  great  expenses,  involving  considerable  per- 
sonal trouble,  from  purely  patriotic  motives,  in  order  to  confer 
benefits  on  a  country  which  does  not  appreciate  those  motives, 
and  on  a  population  which  does  all  in  its  powder  to  discourage 
their  pursuit,  and  to  thwart  their  efforts. 

In  times  of  public  peril  and  emergency,  men  will  often  make 
heavy  sacrifices,  and  devote  even  life  itself  for  the  public  good — 
althougli,  even  in  such  cases,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the 
craving  for  renown  be  not  as  much  the  incentive  to  the  deed 
as  the  desire  of  promoting  the  common  weal.  But  it  is,  I  pre- 
sume, unheard  of,  that  any  large  class  of  persons,  under  no  ur- 
gency of  state  requirements,  has  ever,  from  mere  prospective  mo- 
tives of  patriotic  well-doing  to  future  generations,  largely  ex- 
pended their  means,  their  time  and  their  talents,  in  order  to 
produce  results  which  they  can  never  hope  to  see,  and  which, 
if  they  could,  by  no  possibility  could  repay  to  them  a  tithe 
or  a  hundredth  of  their  outlay. 

The  alternative,  therefore,  is  indisputably  this.  Either  race- 
courses and  established  racing,  or  no  blood  stables  and  thorough- 
bred stock  in  the  land. 

The  question.  Shall  there  be  race-courses,  or  shall  they  be 
proscribed  as  nuisances  ?  must  be  answered,  then,  according  to 
the  degree  of  utility  which  can  be  shown  to  be  derivable  from 


PUKE   BLOOD,  415 

inued  line  of  blood  families,  sufficient 
to  supply  stallions  of  first-rate  qualities,  to  serve  as  progenitors 
to  mares  of  all  classes,  and  as  the  parents  of  half-bred,  two-thirds 
bred,  and  yet  more  highly  descended  stock. 

It  is  an  unquestionable  fact,  that,  on  the  Turf,  nothing  but 
what  are  admitted  thoroughbreds  can  contend,  with  the  slight- 
est hoj)e  of  success,  against  thoroughbreds,  even  with  any  advan- 
tage of  weights,  short  of  loading  down  the  pure-blooded  animal, 
so  that  he  should  be  unable  to  gallop. 

In  the  hunting-field,  which  is  the  next  trial  in  severity  to  a 
race-course,  no  partly-bred  horse  can  by  any  possibility  stay  the 
distance,  when  hounds  are  running  the  pace,  alongside  of  a  tho- 
roughbred, equal  to  the  weight  he  is  called  upon  to  carry, 
through  deep  ground  and  over  fences. 

The  difficulty  of  obtaining  thoroughbreds  equal  to  the  enor- 
mous weights  hunters  are  called  upon  to  carry — varying  from 
13  to  17  stone,  horseman's  weight,  viz.,  from  182  to  238  lbs.* — 
running  over  all  inequalities  of  ground,  with  the  plough-lands 
or  turf  often  fetlock  deep,  and  taking  on  an  average  six  leaps, 
four  feet  and  a  half  and  upward  in  height,  and  twenty  in  extent, 
to  the  mile,  at  distances  of  six  to  twelve  miles,  and  at  the  rate 
of  twelve  miles  in  the  hour ;  and  the  consequently  enormous 
prices,  commanded  by  horses  of  pure  blood,  with  sufficient  bone, 
height,  and  reach,  compel  the  use  of  part-bred  horses  for  what 
are  called  welter  weights,  except  in  the  flying  grass  countries, 
where  nothing  but  thorough  blood  can  do  the  thing  guite  well, 
and  where,  consequently,  none  but  very  rich  men  can  pretend 
to  hunt,  if  they  ride  heavy,  and  desire  to  ride  in  front. 

Part-bred  horses  of  four  or  five  crosses  are  those,  then,  which 
are  in  most  request  for  very  heavy  men  in  ordinary  hunting 
countries ;    while   for  light   weights   of  10,   11,  and  12  stone 


*  That  my  readers  may  not  suspect  me  of  exaggeration,  I  would  say  that  there 
were  going,  at  the  same  time,  with  the  Quorndon  Hounds,  in  Leicestershire,  at  least 
twenty  men  above  the  lowest  weights  specified ;  and  at  least  a  dozen,  of  whom  I 
might  name  Lord  Alvanley,  Sir  Harry  Goodricke,  Valentine  Magher,  Sir  Richard 
Musgrave,  Campbell  of  Saddell,  and,  occasionally,  Dick  Gurney — he  twenty  stone, 
or  280  pounds — above  the  highest  weight  I  have  named.  All  these  men  rode  quite 
up  to  the  hounds,  and  if  not  on  perfect  thoroughbreds,  never  on  horses  with  less 
than  five  or  six  pure  crosses. 


416  THE    HOKSE. 

weight — 140,  154,  and  168  pounds,  respectively — three  parts, 
two  parts,  and  even  half-bred  horses  are  used  in  the  plough 
countries,  by  men  who  cannot  afford  to  go  the  figure  for  blood. 
But  there  is  no  such  thing  known  as  a  horse  got  by  a  half-bred 
horse,  even  out  of  a  full-blooded  mare,  ever  comnianding  a  price, 
or  going  the  pace,  not  quite,  but  even  pretty,  well,  across  a 
country. 

For  the  hunter,  therefore,  in  all  recent  times,  since  hounds 
run,  or  almost  fly,  instead  of  trailing  along  on  a  slow  scent,  the 
highest  attainable  degree  of  blood  is  desirable. 

At  maximum  prices,  any  man  of  any  weight,  who  can  pre- 
tend to  ride  at  all  to  hounds,  if  he  choose  to  pay  those  prices, 
can  be  carried  up  to  hounds  on  thoroughbreds. 

And  as  to  the  idea  of  any  man  ever  complaining  that  his 
hunter  is  too  thoroughbred,  I  can  only  compare  it  to  his  com- 
plaining that  his  wife  is  too  pretty. 

It  may  be  replied,  that  as,  in  America,  we  have  no  fox- 
hunting as  a  national  sport,  we,  of  course,  need  no  hunters, 
more  than  we  do  racers  ;  that  hunting  and  racing  are  the  amuse- 
ments of  the  wealthy  and  privileged  classes,  only — are  of  no 
practical  utility,  and  therefore,  so  far  from  being  encouraged, 
ought  actually  to  be  discouraged. 

For  such  balderdash,  as  even  this,  is  unblushingly  thrust  upon 
the  reluctant  ears  of  men  of  common  sense,  by  the  blatant  beasts 
who  bellow  their  practical  utilitarianism  into  the  bedimmed  and 
bedeafened  brains  of  the  groundlings.  Nay,  I  have  seen  it  pro- 
mulgated of  late  by  the  ignorant  fanatics,  who  are  roused  into 
ludicrous  frenzy  by  their  perception  of  the  returning  sanity  of 
the  masses,  as  evidenced  by  the  favor  with  which  the  trials  of 
speed  have  been  received  at  the  agricultural  exhibitions,  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States,  that  speed  is  a  quality  of  no  possible 
advantage  or  utility  in  a  horse. 

One  would  rejoice  to  learn  what  might  be  deemed  an  advan- 
tage to  the  noble  quadruped,  speed  being,  doubtless,  admitted 
to  he  a  high  quality  in  a  cow,  as  giving  milk  has  long  been 
known  to  be  the  peculiar  excellence  of  a  pigeon.  On  the  whole, 
perhaps,  the  horse  himself  is  decided  to  be  of  no  practical  util- 
ity, and  therefore  to  be  dispensed  with  ;  in  which  case  my  argu- 
ments may  be  dispensed  with  also ;  but  until  that  shall  be 


FAST    COACHING.  417 

determined,  I  shall  endeavor  to  show,  that  as  a  part-bred  horse 
is  the  best  general  hunter,  so  is  he,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
according  to  the  greater  or  less  proportions  of  pure  with  cold 
blood,  the  best  for  all  kinds  of  work,  unless  it  be  lor  draught  of 
enormous  burdens  at  a  foot's  pace.  In  the  old  days  of  English 
coaching,  before  the  provinces  of  England  were  intersected  by  a 
network  of  iron  rails,  and  hissing  locomotives  whirled  their  pas- 
sengers from  Land's  End  to  John  o'  Groat's,  measuring  their 
miles  by  minutes,  speed  was  a  desideratum  in  coaches  ;  and,  as 
coaches  were  then  drawn  by  horses  only,  it  was  not  wholly 
useless  in  a  horse. 

In  those  days,  the  speed  of  the  crack  coaches,  such  as  on  the 
short  roads,  the  Cambridge  Star  and  Fly,  the  Brighton  Age,  the 
Portsmouth  Telegraph,  and  on  the  long  roads,  the  Leeds  Kock- 
ingham  and  York  Highflyer,  canying  twelve  outside  and  four 
inside  passengers,  in  addition  to  the  guard  and  coachman,  and 
from  half  a  ton  to  a  ton  and  a  half  of  baggage,  was  about  fifteen 
miles,  or  from  that  to  seventeen  miles,  an  hour.  I  have  repeat- 
edly travelled  on  either  of  the  two  Cambridge  coaches,  the 
whole  distance  to  London — fifty- two  miles — within  three  hours, 
including  stoppages  ;  and  I  once  travelled  on  the  Leeds  Kock- 
ingham,  when  that  coach  and  the  York  Highflyer  were  running 
opposition,  from  that  city  to  London — two  hundred  and  one 
miles — in  thirteen  hours  and  thirty-five  minutes,  including  all 
stoppages,  part  of  the  journey  being  night  work. 

Now,  what  were  the  horses  by  which  these  feats  were  ac- 
complished, each  team  doing  its  distance,  varying  from  six  to 
nine  miles,  up  the  road  and  back,  once  each  day,  Sundays  ex- 
cepted, unless  in  the  case  of  accident,  or  unusually  severe  and 
heavy  roads  ? 

The  question  is  answered  in  a  moment.  Four-fifths  of  all 
the  teams  were  broken-down  thoroughbreds,  and  the  remaining 
one-fifth  nearly  pure-blooded  hunters — all  of  them  horses  which 
had  either  gone  slightly  amiss,  so  as  to  be  thrown  out  of  their 
original  employment,  or  had,  in  the  first  instance,  been  unfit, 
owing  to  want  of  speed  or  some  unsoundness  of  wind  or  limb, 
for  the  course  or  the  field.  Nothing  but  these  could  have  done 
it,  once.  The  pace  would  have  killed  them  the  first  day  ;  or  if 
it  had  not  done  so,  they  could  not  have  come  again  in  a  week. 
Vol.  I.— 27 


418  'i"HK    HOK8E. 

These  garae  animals,  supported  by  their  blood  alone,  and  the 
iron  hardness  peculiar  to  the  bones  and  muscles  of  thoroughbreds 
— many  of  them,  the  leaders  especially,  little  weedy-looking 
screws— did  it,  day  after  day,  at  a  rattling  gallop,  except  now 
and  then  up  some  unusually  steep  ascent,  when  they  were  pulled 
into  a  trot,  comparatively  uninjured.  They  were,  of  course, 
well  fed,  well  groomed,  well  housed,  and  well  driven  ;  and  by 
well,  I  mean  not  only  bountifully  and  carefully,  but  judiciously. 
But  there  was  the  daily  distance  to  be  done ;  it  had  to  be  done, 
and  it  was  done,  in  spite  of  roads  or  weather — unless  it  were 
floods  or  snowdrifts — and  I  have  often  seen  them  so  little  the 
worse  for  the  rating  gallop  of  seven  or  eight  miles  in  five 
and  twenty  minutes,  with  three  or  four  tons  at  their  heels,  that 
they  would  bite  at  one  another  in  play,  when  unhitched,  and 
canter  off  to  the  stables  with  all  their  harness  rattling  about 
them,  before  the  new  team  was  in  their  places. 

That  speed  the  people  demanded,  at  that  time ;  and  it  had 
to  be  effected— that  it  was  effected,  was  the  consequence  of 
there  being  thoroughbreds  in  England,  sufficiently  numerous 
and  sufficiently  cheap  to  be  applied  to  coaching  purposes. 

It  is  useless  to  decry  the  advantages  of  speedy  travel,  in 
these  days,  when  men  will  travel,  at  the  risk  of  incurring  actual 
peril  of  life  and  limb— if  they  travel  far  and  frequently— equal 
to  that  faced  by  a  soldier  in  active  service,  in  the  fastest  and 
most  insecure  of  railroads  and  steamboats.  And  it  is  just  as 
absurd  to  decry  the  utility  of  speed  in  horse-flesh,  which  is 
not  incompatible  with  perfect  security,  as  it  were  to  maintain 
that  slow  trains  are  perferable  to  fast  ones,  and  that  it  is  better 
to  cross  the  Atlantic  in  thirty  days  than  in  ten  or  eleven. 

For  if  it  be  as  good,  or  better,  it  is  evident  that  peo^^le  will 
not  do  it. 

And  just  as  well  may  we  expect  a  traveller  purposely  to  se- 
lect a  slow  steamer  for  an  ocean  transit,  as  to  drive  a  slow  horse 
and  a  bad  traveller,  when  he  can  drive  or  ride  one  that  rattles 
him  off  his  fourteen  or  sixteen  miles  in  an  hour,  with  ease  to 
himself,  and  pleasure  to  his  owner. 

It  is  a  utilitarian  maxim  of  the  age  that  time  is  money ;  a 
maxim  which  we  hear  most  earnestly  insisted  on  by  the  anti- 
race-horse,  anti-trial-of-speed,  anti-every-sort-of-amusement  pha- 


SPET5D    IS    MONEY.  4:10 

risees,  with  whom  money  is  not  only  the  greatest,  but  the  only, 
good. 

Now  it  cannot  be  denied,  that,  in  a  far  more  matter  of  fact 
sense,  than  that  in  which  time  is  said  to  be  money,  because  out 
of  time  we  may,  or  may  not,  according  to  our  own  abilities  and 
other  contingencies,  make  money,  fast  horses  really  are  true, 
hard  money.  For  in  the  exact  ratio  of  their  speed,  other  things 
being  equal,  will  they  command  cash  down. 

Whether  it  be  right  or  wrong,  wise  or  unwise  in  the  world, 
that  it  should  be  so,  so  it  is  ;  and  so  long  as  the  world  will  give 
large  prices  for  fast  horses,  that  can  make  the  time,  and  stay  the 
distance,  so  long  do  we  opine  that  farmers,  in  general,  and 
horse-breeding  farmers,  in  particular,  will  judge  it  to  be  for 
their  advantage  to  have  their  road-mare,  if  they  keep  one,  or 
their  plough-mare,  if  they  do  not,  of  a  likely  kind  to  drop  a 
fast,  well-sliaped,  enduring  foal — in  case  they  take  a  notion  to 
throw  her  out  of  work  for  a  while,  and  see  if  they  can't  get  a 
clever  colt  out  of  her — will  judge  it  to  be  for  their  advantage 
to  stint  her  to  a  horse,  which  has  shown  himself  by  proof  of 
trial,  to  be  a  sure  getter  of  fast,  hardy,  and  sound  ones — even, 
if  he  have  to  pay  a  handful  of  dollars  for  his  service,  more  than 
for  that  of  some  loggy,  lazy,  swill-fattened  drayhorse ; — and  will 
jndge  it  to  be  immeusely  to  his  advantage,  if  he  find  himself, 
at  the  end  of  three  or  four  years,  the  owner  of  a  young  one, 
which  realizes  him  eight  hundred  or  a  thousand,  becanse  he  can 
go  away  down  in  the  thirties,  or  half  as  much  again,  because 
he  has  the  style,  pace,  action  and  speed  to  make  a  general  offi- 
cer's battle-charger,  or  a  match  for  a  pair  of  round-steppers, 
which,  together,  will  command  three  or  four  thousand,  from  a 
city  dealer — Neighbor  JSTo-advantage-in-speed-Sour-Grapes,  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Now  to  the  production  of  the  animals  of  the  types  I  de- 
scribe— I  care  not  which  of  them — the  blood  sire  is  a  requisite. 
And  the  better  blood,  the  better  I  mean,  for  its  proved  trans- 
mission of  speed  and  lasting,  and  the  more  of  it,  the  better 
will  be  the  foal ;  whether  he  turn  out  a  trotter,  a  charger,  a 
hunter,  a  roadster,  a  carriage  horse,  or  a  mere  machineer. 

In  whichever  of  these  capacities  he  is  fitted  by  his  strength, 
eize,  weight,  bone,  show,  speed,  carriage,  and  action  to  excel, 


420  THE    HORSE. 

rest  assured  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  mistake,  that  the  com- 
petitor, who  is  jjrecisely  his  equal  in  every  other  respect,  but 
his  inferior  in  blood,  he  will  beat  in  lasting,  in  coming  again, 
and  in  endurance  of  punishment,  by  exactly  so  much  as  he  does 
excel  him  in  blood. 

Isaj !  if  he  have  very  long  to  last,  and  very  often  to  come 
again,  particularly  at  high  weights,  and  in  distress,  he  may 
safely  allow  him  the  advantage  of  a  very  superior  turn  of  speed. 
And  those  lovers  and  admirers  of  the  trotting  horse,  and  depre- 
ciators  of  the  race  horse,  as  if  he  were  a  mere  toy  of  luxury 
and  idleness,  an  inciter  to  vain  display,  and  an  accomplice  in 
sin  and  scandal,  tacitly  admit  his  immeasurable  superiority  as 
a  progenitor,  by  the  pains  they  take — wherever  there  is  the 
shadow  of  foundation  for  such  a  pretence — to  prove  that  the 
trotter  is  thoroughbred  himself,  or  at  least  the  jDroduct  of  three 
or  four  pure  crosses. 

For  they  well  know  that  being  shown  fast,  in  his  ow^n  per- 
formnnce,  and  in  his  blood  indisputably  of  high  thorough  strain, 
his  value  is  multiplied  tenfold.  Such  descent  is  all  but  a  guar- 
antee that,  whatever  else  he  may  turn  out,  he  will  not  turn  out 
a  flincher  or  a  dunghill. 

Pedigrees  of  trotters  are  rarely  to  be  ascertained,  or  even 
approximated,  since  they  have  for  the  most  part  passed  through 
many  hands,  and  are  no  longer  young,  before  their  powers  are 
discovered — when  it  is  too  late  to  inquire.  Still,  it  is  known 
that  many,  and,  for  every  reason,  suspected  that  more  of  the 
best  performers  have  been  nearly  if  not  qidte  thoroughbred. 

Of  this,  however,  I  am  prepared  to  treat  more  fully,  when 
I  come  to  speak  of  trotters  and  the  trotting  turf,  the  reason  of 
their  superior  excellence  and  frequency  in  the  United  States, 
and  of  their  rarity  and  inferior  speed  in  Great  Britain. 

There  is  yet  one  branch  of  horse-breeding  to  be  named,  and 
that,  perhaps,  the  most  important  in  a  national  point  of  view. 
I  mean  the  breeding  of  horses  for  mounting  the  cavalry  service  ; 
and  in  none  is  the  use  of  the  thoroughbred  stallion,  as  a  sire,  so 
manifest  as  in  this. 

The  requirements  of  cavalry  service,  in  modern  armies,  are 
twofold — the  first,  outpost  duty,  making  reconnoissances  of 
wide  tracts  of  country,  and  skirmishing — the  second,  charging 


CAVALEY.  421 

solid  masses,  whether  of  infantry  or  horse,  at  speed,  in  the 
actual  shock  of  battle.  For  the  first  of  these  duties,  activity, 
rather  than  speed,  quickness,  hardness,  and  endurance,  are  the 
essential  qualifications — for  the  second,  the  union  of  the  maxi- 
mum of  speed  with  the  maximum  of  the  weight-carrying 
capacity. 

In  the  charge  of  cavalry  the  measure  of  the  impetus,  or 
momentum,  of  the  attacking  body,  is  that  of  the  weight  multi- 
plied by  that  of  the  velocity  of  the  impinging  body. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  heavier  the  body  which  can 
be  propelled  at  a  given  rate  against  a  lighter  body,  going  at  the 
same  rate — or  the  greater  the  speed  at  which  any  given  body 
can  be  propelled  against  an  equal  body  moving  at  inferior 
speed — the  more  powerful  and  certain  the  efi'ect  of  the  charge. 

In  a  word,  the  problem  given  to  be  answered  is,  how  to 
propel  the  maximum  weight  at  the  maximum  speed  ? 

The  weight  of  an  English  trooper  fully  accoutred  and  in 
heavy  marching  order,  is  prodigious  ;  that  of  a  hussar  or  light 
dragoon,  averaging  eighteen  stone,  or  250  lbs. ;  that  of  a  heavy 
dragoon,  twenty  stone,  or  280  lbs.  ;  and  that  of  a  life-guardsman, 
or  cuirassier,  twenty-two  stone,  or  308  lbs. 

Great  power  is  of  course  required  to  mount  these  ponderous 
masses,  but  great  speed  is  also  required  to  move  them ;  for 
unless  they  can  be  launched  at  a  tremendous  rate,  all  the 
horses  being  so  equal  in  their  pace  and  stride  tliat  the  line  is 
kept  perfectly  dressed,  and  even,  to  the  moment  when  the  shock 
is  to  be  given,  the  charge  is  a  failure. 

To  attain  thispower  of  immense  speed  for  a  short  time  under 
a  crushing  weight,  in  the  actual  charge,  and  to  combine  with  it 
the  power  of  staying  long  distances,  coming  again  quickly, 
moving  actively,  and  enduring  severe  distress,  nothing  but  the 
highest  possible  degree  of  blood  that  can  be  combined  with  bone, 
size,  shape  and  action  sufiicient  to  endure  such  weights,  and  all 
this  capable  of  being  furnished  at  a  possible  price,  can  succeed. 
This  can  be,  and  is  attained  by  the  crossing  choice  blood  stal- 
lions of  the  proper  build  and  style  on  properly  selected  mares, 
to  the  second  or  third  generation.  The  light  brigade  of  Lord 
Cardigan,  which  made  that  prodigious  charge  and  retreat,  each 
of  a  mile  and  a  half,  was  mounted  on  three  parts  blood-horses. 


422  THE  noRSE. 

It  is  safe  to  assert  that,  had  they  been  half-breds,  not  one  hoi-se 
woukl  liavo  got  back  into  the  British  lines  ;  had  they  possessed 
no  bh:)od  at  all,  tliey  would  all  have  stood  still  before  they 
reached  the  Russian  batteries. 

The  heavy  brigade  of  Brig.  Gen.  Scarlet,  which  rode  through 
the  Russian  troopers  in  fourfold  force,  as  if  they  had  been  lines 
of  pasteboard,  were  mounted  on  chargers  having  two  crosses  of 
pure  blood,  or  as  nearly  so  as  possible. 

Nothing  but  blood  could  have  accomplished  either  feat. 

And  it  is  well  to  remember  that,  when  cavalry  meets  cavalry 
in  the  deadly  shock,  both  being  equally  brave  and  equally  well 
led,  that  cavalry,  which  is  horsed  on  chargers  of  the  same 
weight,  but  of  inferior  blood  and  stride,  must  go  down  like 
grass  before  the  scythe. 

Tliis  is  the  pride  and  triumj^h  of  blood,  that  it  can  do  every 
thing,  tor  which  it  is  intended,  q^uite  well,  and  that  nothing  else 
can  do  so  ;  with  the  exception  of  pulling  tons  of  weight  at  a  foot's 
pace ;  and  I  have  seen  blood  horses  which  could  have  done  that 
too,  had  they  been  put  to  it ;  one  in  particular,  a  gigantic  stal- 
lion, named  Belshazzar,  which  stood  for  country  mares  in  the 
West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  in  about  the  year  1830.  He  was 
above  seventeen  hands  high,  and  as  large  boned  and  generally 
powerful  as  any  Conestoga  liorse  I  have  since  beheld. 

Tlie  true  utility  of  the  thoroughbred  horse,  therefore,  is  the 
raising  the  standard  of  speed,  sjjirit  and  endurance,  which  are 
Mood,  in  horses  for  all  purposes,  the  road,  the  hunting  field,  the 
shock  of  the  battle,  for  pomp,  for  speed,  for  courage,  for  true 
service. 

Woe  tothe  country  which,  aspiring  to  equestrian  fame,  relies 
on  any  blood  but  tliat,  or  any  mode  of  maintaining  that,  at  its 
acme,  but  the  assiduous  encouragement  and  patronage  of  the 
race-horse  and  the  turf. 

It  was  thus  that  England  won,  centuries  ago,  her  admitted 
invincibility,  her  immeasureable  superioi'ity  over  all  European 
nations  in  her  breed  of  horses  ;  not  of  one,  but  of  all  castes  ;  not 
for  one  use,  but  for  all  conceivable  purposes ;  thus,  that  she 
has  preserved  her  prestige  unaltered. 

It  is  thus  that  we,  following  her  example,  can  show  one 


THE   ENGLISH    HOKSE.  423 

country,  the  only  one  on  eartli  to  whicli  it  has  been  introduced, 
in  which  the  English  horse  has  not  degenerated. 

In  every  respect,  at  least,  we  stand  equal  to  the  mother 
country  in  her  boasted  equestrian  glories  ;  in  one  particular,  our 
trotting  turf,  and  the  consequence  thereof,  our  light,  active,  hardy 
roadsters,  we  avowedly  surpass  her.  With  her  hunters  and 
steeple-chasers  we  have  not,  nor  are  like  to  have,  any  competi- 
tion ;  but  it  is  probable  that,  before  these  lines  shall  have  been 
converted  from  manuscript  to  type,  the  palm  of  the  modern 
turf  may  have  been  lost  and  won. 

All  this,  however,  we  have  accomplished  by  cherishing  what 
we  have  got  from  her,  alone  of  nations,  the  pure  blood  of  our 
thoroughbreds.  If  we  lose  that  by  our  own  neglect,  or  throw  it 
away,  in  obedience  to  the  folly  of  fanatical  pharisees,  it  will  be  our 
own  fault ;  and  a  fault  which  will  deserve  contempt,  not  pity ; 
committing  which,  we  shall  merit  alike  and  receive  the  ridicule 
of  all  foreign  nations,  and  the  reprobation  of  our  own  people, 
before  the  birth  of  a  second,  much  less  a  third,  generation. 


ESSENTIAL   POINTS 

IN    THE    THOROUGHBRED    HORSE    FOR    RACING    PURPOSES. 

In  the  following  description,  the  points  of  the  thoroughbred 
horse  are  so  admirably  laid  down  by  Stonehenge,  and  are  so 
exactly  those  which  I  hold  to  constitute  the  perfection  of  a 
blood-horse  in  a  high  form,  not  only  for  racing  purposes  but  as 
a  stallion  for  imijroving  the  breed  of  animals,  and  for  getting 
the  best  horses  from  any  possible  class  of  mare,  for  all  possible 
uses,  unless  for  the  very  slowest  and  most  ponderous  draught, 
that  I  extract  it  entire,  endorsing  it  with  all  my  strength,  from  an 
excellent  work  on  British  Rnral  Sports,  to  which  I  have  here 
before  recorded  my  indebtedness: — 

Purity  of  blood  is  a  sine  qua  non  for  racing  purposes,  but 
it  is  necessary  to  understand  what  is  meant  by  the  term 
"  blood."  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  there  is  any  real  diflPer- 
ence  between  the  blood  of  the  thoroughbred  horse  and  that  of 
the  half-bred  animal;  no  one  could  discriminate  between  the 
two  by  any  known  means ;  the  term  "  blood  "  is  here  synono- 
mous  with  hreed^  and  by  purity  of  blood  we  mean  purity  in 
the  breeding  of  the  individual  animal  under  consideration;  that 
is  to  say,  that  the  horse  which  is  entirely  bred  from  one  source 
is  pure  from  any  mixture  with  others,  and  may  be  a  pure  Suf- 
folk Punch,  or  a  pure  Clydesdale,  or  a  pure  thoroughbred 
horse.  But  all  these  terms  are  comparative,  since  there  is  no 
such  animal  as  a  perfectly  purely  bred  horse  of  any  breed,  wlie- 
ther  cart-horse,  hack,  or  race-horse ;  all  have  been  produced 
from  an  admixture  with  other  breeds,  and  though  novo  kept  as 


PUKE    BLOOD.  425 

pure  as  possible,  yet  they  were  originally  compounded  from 
varying  elements.  Even  the  best  and  pnrest  thoroughbreds 
are  stained  with  some  slight  imperfections,  and  therefore  it  is 
only  by  comparison  that  the  word  pure  is  applicable  to  them  or 
any  others.  But  since  the  thoroughbred  horse,  as  he  is  called, 
has  long  been  bred  for  racing  pnrposes,  and  selections  have 
been  made  with  that  view  alone,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  this  breed  is  the  best  for  that  purpose,  and  that  a  stain  of 
any  other  is  a  deviation  from  the  clearest  stream  into  one  more 
muddy,  and  therefore  impure  ;  the  consequence  is,  that  the 
animal  bred  from  the  impure  source  fails  in  some  of  the  essen- 
tial characteristics  of  the  pure  breed,  and  is  in  so  far  useless 
for  this  particular  object.  Now,  in  practice  this  is  found  to  be 
the  case,  for  in  every  instance  it  has  resulted  that  the  horse 
bred  with  the  slightest  deviation  from  the  sources  indicated  by 
the  stud-book,  is  unable  to  compete  in  lasting  power  with  those 
which  are  entirely  of  that  breed.  Hence  it  is  established  as  a 
rule,  that  for  racing  j)urposes  every  horse  must  be  tliorough- 
bred ;  that  is,  as  I  have  already  explained,  of  a  sirs  and  dam 
whose  names  are  met  with  in  the  Stud  Book. 

The  external  form  of  the  race-horse  is  of  great  importance ; 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  axiom  is  correct,  "  that  the  horse 
can  run  in  all  forms."  The  instances  where  this  is  so,  however, 
are  the  exceptional  cases,  and  the  rule,  nevertheless,  is  a  good 
one,  which  lays  down  that  coderis  paribus,  the  horse  will  be 
the  best  runner  which  is  formed  in  the  mould  most  like  that  of 
the  greatest  number  of  good  race-horses.  Thus,  supposing  it  is 
found  that  out  of  50  good  horses  49  have  neat  heads,  light  necks, 
deep  chests,  oblique  shoulders,  long  racing  hind-quarters,  strong 
hocks,  &c.,  the  presumption  will  be  that  a  horse  resembling 
those  49  in  shape  will  also  resemble  them  in  speed  and  endur- 
ance. On  the  other  hand,  it  is  admitted  on  the  turf  that  high- 
breeding  is  of  more  consequence  than  external  shape,  and  that 
of  two  horses,  one  perfect  in  shape,  but  of  an  inferior  strain  of 
blood,  and  the  other  of  the  most  winning  blood,  but  not  so  well 
formed  in  shape,  the  latter  will  be  the  most  likely  to  perform 
to  the  satisfaction  of  his  master  on  the  race-course.  On  this 
principle  the  proverb  has  been  framed  and  handed  down  to  us, 
that  "  an  ounce  of  blood  is  worth  a  pound  of  bone,"  and  with 


426  THK    HORSE. 

the  above  explanation  such  is  really  the  case.  But  in  spite  of 
all  this  recognized  superiority  of  blood,  it  is  indisputable  that 
for  the  highest  degree  of  success  there  must  be  not  only  high 
purity  of  blood,  and  that  of  the  most  winning  strains,  but  there 
must  also  be  a  frame  of  the  most  useful  character,  if  not  always 
of  the  most  elegant  form.  Many  of  our  very  best  horses  have 
been  x)lain.  and  even  coarse-looking — as,  for  instance,  most  of 
the  Melbournes,  and  especially  that  very  fast  horse.  Sir  Tatton 
Sykes ;  but,  in  spite  of  their  plainness,  all  the  points  are  good 
and  useful,  and  the  deficiency  is  in  elegance,  not  in  real  utility. 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  goodness  of  the  frames  of  this  horse's 
stock,  and  their  width  of  hip  and  general  roominess  of  make  is 
such  as  to  give  them  enormous  power  and  great  substance  of 
muscle,  which  is  particularly  serviceable  in  the  fillies  got  by 
him,  a  class  of  animals  more  often  deficient  in  these  points  than 
colts.  From  this  it  results  that  the  distinction  must  always  be 
made  between  elegance  and  utility ;  and  it  must  be  remembered, 
that  while  the  former  pleases  the  eye,  it  is  not  really  conducive 
to  victory ;  whilst  on  the  other  hand,  the  ragged  hips  and  gen- 
eral bony  frames  of  some  horses  are  not  so  elegant  to  the  eye, 
but  they  give  strong  attachment  to  the  moving  powers,  and  also 
allow  the  muscular  system  to  be  largely  developed  on  their 
foundation.  The  following  are  the  generally  admitted  good 
points  by  which  the  race-course  of  high  caste  is  distinguished 
from  the  common  herd. 

The  height  of  the  race-horse  varies  from  15  hands  to  16  1-2 
hands,  or  even  17  hands ;  but  the  general  height  of  our  best 
horses  is  about  15  hands  3  inches.  Few  first-class  performers 
have  exceeded  the  height  of  Surplice,  who  is  16  hands  1  inch, 
as  is  also  the  winner  of  this  year's  Derby,  Wild  Dayrell,  Sir 
Tatton  Sykes  is  15  1-2  hands  ;  and  between  his  height  and  that 
of  Surplice  may  be  ranged  evey  great  winner  for  the  last  10  or 
12  years.  This  average,  therefore,  may  be  fairly  laid  down  as 
the  best  height  for  the  race-horse,  though  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  for  some  small  and  confined  courses — as,  for  instance,  that 
of  Chester,  a  smaller  horse  of  little  more  than  15  hands  height 
has  a  better  chance,  as  being  more  capable  of  turning  round 
the  constantly  recurring  angles  or  bends. 

The  head  and  neck  should  be  characterized  by  lightness. 


SHAPE.  427 

which  is  essential  for  this  department.  Whatever  is  unneces- 
sary is  so  much  dead  weight,  and  we  know  the  effect  of  T  lbs. 
in  impeding  the  horse  over  a  distance  of  ground.  Now  7  lbs. 
are  easily  bestowed  upon  a  neck  which  may  differ  in  at  least 
20  or  30  lbs.  between  the  two  extremes  of  lightness  and  exces- 
sive weight.  Tlius,  it  may  be  considered  as  indubitable,  that 
whatever  is  met  with  in  the  head  and  neck,  wliich  is  not  neces- 
sary for  the  peculiar  purposes  of  the  race-horse,  is  so  much 
weight  thrown  away,  and  yet  it  must  be  carried  by  the  horse. 
Such  is  the  general  character  of  this  part;  but  in  detail  the 
head  should  be  lean  about  the  jaw,  yet  with  a  full  development 
of  forehead,  which  should  be  convex  and  wide,  so  as  to  contain 
within  the  skull  a  good  volume  of  brain.  Supposing  this  fulness 
to  exist,  all  the  rest  of  the  head  may  be  as  fine  as  possible  ;  the 
jaws  being  reduced  to  a  fine  muzzle,  with  a  slight  hollowing 
out  in  front,  but  with  a  width  between  the  two  sides  of  the 
lower  jaw  where  it  joins  the  neck,  so  as  to  allow  plenty  of  room 
for  the  top  of  the  windpipe  when  the  neck  is  bent.  Tlie  ears 
should  be  pricked  and  fine,  but  not  too  short;  eyes  full  and 
spirited ;  nostrils  large,  and  capable  of  being  well  dilated  when 
at  full  speed,  which  is  easily  tested  by  the  gallop,  after  which 
they  ought  to  stand  out  firmly,  and  so  as  to  show  the  internal 
lining  fully.  The  neck  sliould  be  musculai",  and  yet  light ;  the 
windpipe  loose  and  separate  from  the  neck — that  is,  not  too 
tightly  bound  down  by  the  fascia^  or  membrane  of  the  neck. 
The  crest  should  be  thin  and  wiry,  not  thick  and  loaded,  as  is 
often  seen  in  coarse  stallions,  or  even  in  some  mares.  Between 
the  two  extremes  of  the  ewe-neck  and  its  opposite  there  are 
many  degrees,  but  for  racing  purposes  I  should  prefer,  of  the 
two,  the  former  to  the  latter ;  for  few  horses  can  go  well  with 
their  necks  bent  so  as  to  draw  the  chin  to  the  bosom  ;  but  here, 
as  in  most  other  cases,  the  happy  medium  is  to  be  desired, 
which  is  that  exhibited  in  the  figure  of  Kingston,  who  is  a  horse 
as  remarkable  for  his  shape  as  for  his  exceedingly  distinguished 
performances.  His  head  and  general  form  are  those  which 
may  be  selected  as  the  pattern  for  the  I'ace-horse,  for  though 
he  is  often  considered  as  too  light  in  the  girth,  he  is,  in  my 
opinion,  just  what  a  race-horse  should  be  in  that  department, 
which  is  more  frequently  too  deep  than  the  reverse ;  and  his 


428  THE    HORSE. 

well-known  stoutness,  as  well  as  that  of  his  kith  and  kin,  verifies 
the  opinion. 

The  body,  or  middle-piece,  should  be  moderately  long,  and 
not  too  much  confined  between  the  last  rib  and  the  hip-bone. 
So  long  as  the  last  or  back-ribs  are  deep,  it  is  not  of  so  much 
importance  that  tliey  should  be  closely  connected  to  the  hip- 
bone, for  such  a  shape  shortens  the  stride  ;  and  though  it  enables 
the  horse  to  carry  great  weight,  yet  it  prevents  liim  from  attain- 
ing a  high  rate  of  speed.  The  l)ack  itself  should  be  muscular, 
and  the  hips  so  wide  as  to  allow  of  a  good  development  of  the 
muscular  department.  The  withers  may  rise  gently,  but  not 
too  high,  witli  that  thin,  razor-like  elevation  which  many  people 
call  a  good  shoulder,  but  which  really  has  nothing  to  do  with 
that  part,  and  is  only  an  annoyance  to  the  saddler,  in  prevent- 
ing its  being  pinched  b}'^  the  saddle.  The  chest  itself  should 
be  well  developed,  but  not  too  wide  and  deep  ;  no  horse  can  go 
a  distance  without  a  fair  "  bellows- room  ;"  but,  supposing  the 
heart  to  be  sound  and  of  good  quality,  the  amount  of  lung  will 
suffice  wliich  may  be  contained  in  a  medium-sized  chest,  and  all 
above  that  is  wasted,  and  is  extra  weight.  Many  of  our  best 
winded  horses  have  liad  medium-sized  chests,  and  some  of  the 
very  worst  have  been  furjiished  with  room  enough  for  a  pair  of 
bhicksmith's  bellows  to  play  in.  If  the  heart  only  does  its  duty 
Avell,  the  lungs  can  always  furnish  sufficient  air  ;  and  we  know 
that  when  frequently,  renewed,  and  with  sufficient  power,  tlie 
blood  is  aerated  as  fast  as  it  is  propelled,  and  the  chief  difficulty 
lies  in  this  power  of  propulsion,  which  resides  in  the  heart  alone. 
If  the  chest  be  too  wide,  it  materially  affects  the  action  of  the 
fore-legs,  and  therefore  in  every  point  of  view,  theoi-etically  and 
practically,  there  is  a  happy  medium  between  the  too  great  con- 
traction in  this  department,  and  the  heavy,  wide,  lumbering 
chests,  sometimes  seen  even  in  the  thoroughbred  race-horse, 
especially  when  reared  upon  rich  succulent  lierbage,  more  fitted 
for  the  bullock  than  the  eastern  horse.  In  the  formation  of  the 
hips,  the  essential  point  is  length  and  breadth  of  bone  for  mus- 
cular attachment,  and  it  matters  little  whether  the  croup  droops 
a  little,  or  is  pretty  straight  and  level,  so  that  there  is  a  good 
length  from  the  hip  to  the  haunch-bone  ;  the  line  between  which 
two  points  may  either  be  nearly  horizontal,  or  forming  a  con- 


THE   FORE-QUAETEK.  429 

siderable  angle  with  the  ground ;  but  still  in  both  cases  in  should 
be  a  long  line,  and  the  longer  it  is  the  more  muscular  substance 
is  attached  to  it,  and  the  greater  leverage  will  the  muscles  have. 
All  these  points  are  still  further  explained  in  the  Anatomy  of 
the  Horse,  which  see,  for  the  details  of  those  parts. 

The  fore- quarter,  consisting  of  the  shoulder,  upper  and 
lower  arm  and  leg  and  foot,  should  be  well  set  on  to  the  chest ; 
and  the  shoulder-blade  should  lie  obliquely  on  the  side  of  that 
part,  with  a  full  development  of  muscle  to  move  it,  and  thrust 
it  well  forward  in  the  gallop.  Obliquity  is  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance, acting  as  a  sj)ring  in  taking  oif  the  shock  of  the  gallop 
or  leap,  and  also  giving  a  longer  attachment  to  the  muscles,  and 
in  addition  enabling  them  to  act  with  more  leverage  upon  the 
arm  and  leg.  It  will  be  seen,  by  a  reference  to  the  skeleton, 
that  the  shoulder-blade  does  not  reach  the  top  of  the  withers, 
and  that  those  bones  forming  that  part  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  shoulder  itself;  hence  many  high-withered  horses  have  bad 
and  weak  shoulders,  and  some  very  upright  ones  ;  whilst,  on 
the  other  hand,  many  low- withered  horses  have  very  oblique 
and  powerful  shoulders,  and  such  as  to  give  great  facility  and 
pliability  to  the  fore  extremity.  Tlie  shoulder  should  be  very 
muscular,  without  being  over-done  or  loaded,  and  so  formed  as 
to  play  freely  in  tlie  action  of  the  horse.  The  point  of  the 
shoulder  which  is  the  joint  corresponding  to  the  human  shoulder, 
should  be  free  from  raggedness,  but  not  too  flat ;  a  certain  de- 
gree of  development  of  the  bony  parts  is  desirable,  but  more 
than  this  leads  to  defect,  and  impedes  the  action  of  this  im- 
portant part.  The  upper  arm,  between  this  joint  and  the  elbow, 
should  be  long,  and  well  clothed  with  muscles ;  the  elbow  set 
on  quite  straight,  and  not  tied  in  to  the  chest ;  the  lower  arm 
muscular  and  long  ;  knees  broad  and  strong,  with  the  bony  pro- 
jection behind  well  developed  ;  legs  flat,  and  showing  a  suspen- 
sory ligament  large  and  free ;  pasterns  long  enough,  without 
being  weak ;  and  the  feet  sound,  and  neither  too  large  nor  too 
small,  and  unattended  with  any  degree  of  contraction,  which  is 
the  bane  of  the  thoroughbred  horse. 

The  hind-quarter  is  the  chief  agent  in  propulsion,  and  is 
therefoi-e  of  the  utmost  consequence  in  attaining  high  speed.  It 
is  often  asserted  that  the  oblique  shoulder  is  the  grand  requisite 


4:30  THE    HORSE. 

in  this  object,  and  that  it  is  the  part  upon  which  speed  mainly 
depends,  and  in  which  it  may  be  said  to  reside.  This  is,  to  some 
extent,  true,  because  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  with  a  loaded 
shoulder  high  speed  is  impracticable  ;  for  however  powerfully 
the  body  may  be  propelled,  yet  when  the  fore-quarter  touclies 
the  ground  it  does  not  bound  oft'  again  as  smartly  as  it  ought  to 
do,  and  the  pace  is  consequently  slow.  This  position  may  be 
illustrated  by  an  experiment  with  two  balls,  one  of  india-rubber, 
and  the  other  of  corresponding  size  and  weight,  nuide  of  any 
inelastic  material,  such  as  M'ax.  Now  suppose  these  two  balls 
propelled  witli  equal  power  along  a  piece  of  fine  turf  at  sncli  an 
angle  as  to  strike  its  surface,  and  rebound  again  and  again — the 
elastic  ball  would  at  first  only  equal  the  other  in  speed,  but  it 
would  soon  outstrip  it,  because  its  elasticity  would  carry  on  the 
original  propelling  power,  while  the  dull,  inelastic  nature  of  the 
wax-ball  M'ould  speedily  cause  it  to  adhere  to  its  mother  earth. 
Just  so  with  the  elastic  shoulder — it  receives  the  resistance  of 
the  earth,  but  reacts  upon  it,  and  loses  very  little  of  tlie  power 
given  by  tlie  stroke  of  the  hind-quarter,  which,  nevertheless, 
must  be  strong  and  quick,  or  else  there  is  nothing  for  the 
shoulder  to  receive  and  ti-ansmit.  For  the  full  action  of  the 
hind-quarters,  two  things  are  necessary ;  viz.,  first,  length 
and  volume  of  muscle  ;  and,  secondly,  length  of  leverage  upon 
which  that  muscle  may  act.  Hence  all  the  bones  comprising 
the  hind-quarter  should  be  long,  but  the  comparative  length 
must  vary  a  good  deal,  in  order  that  the  parts  upon  which  the 
muscles  lie  may  be  long,  rather  than  those  connected  with  the 
tendons,  which  are  mere  ropes,  and  have  no  propelling  power 
residing  in  them,  but  only  transmit  that  which  tliey  derive  from 
the  muscles  themselves.  Thus,  the  hips  should  be  long  and 
wide,  and  the  two  upper  divisions  of  the  limb — viz.,  the  stifle 
and  lower  thigh — should  be  long,  strong,  and  full}'  developed. 
By  this  formation  the  stifle-joint  is  brought  well  forward,  and 
there  is  a  considerable  angle  between  these  two  divisions.  The 
hock  should  be  bony  and  strong,  free  from  gum  or  spavin,  and 
the  point  long,  and  so  set  on  as  to  be  free  from  weakness  at  the 
situation  of  curb.  In  examining  the  hind-quarter  to  judge  of 
its  muscular  development,  the  horse  should  not  be  looked  at 
sideways,  but  his  tail  should  be  raised,  and  it  should  be  ascer- 


COLOR.  4.31 

tained  that  the  muscles  of  the  two  limbs  meet  together  below 
the  anns,  which  should  be  in  fact  well  supported  bj  them,  and 
not  left  loose,  and,  as  it  were,  in  a  deep  and  flaccid  hollow.  The 
outline  of  the  outer  part  of  the  thigh  should  be  full,  and  in 
ordinary  horses  the  muscle  should  swell  out  beyond  the  level  of 
the  point  of  the  hip.  Tliis  fulness,  however,  is  not  often  seen 
to  this  extent  in  the  thoroughbred  horse  until  he  has  arrived  at 
mature  age,  and  is  taken  out  of  training.  The  bones  below  the 
hock  should  be  flat  and  free  from  adhesions  ;  the  ligaments  and 
tendons  fully  developed,  and  standing  out  free  from  the  bone  ; 
and  the  joints  well  formed  and  wide,  yet  without  any  diseased 
enlargement  ;  the  pasterns  should  be  moderately  long  and 
oblique  ;  the  bones  of  good  size  ;  and,  lastly,  the  feet  should 
correspond  with  those  already  alluded  to  in  the  anterior  ex- 
tremity. 

The  totality  of  these  points  should  be  in  proportion  to  one 
another— that  is  to  say,  the  formation  of  the  horse  should  be 
"  true."  He  should  not  have  long,  well-developed  hind-quarters, 
with  an  upright,  weak,  or  confined  fore-quarter.  Nor  will  the 
converse  serve  ;  for  however  well  formed  the  shoulder  may  be, 
the  horse  will  not  go  well  unless  he  has  a  similar  formation  in 
the  propellers.  It  is  of  great  importance,  therefore,  that  the 
race-horse  sliould  have  all  his  various  points  in  true  relative 
development,  and  that  there  shall  not  be  the  hind-quarter  of  a 
long,  racing-like  horse,  Avith  the  thick,  confined  shoulder  which 
would  suit  a  stride  less  reaching  in  its  nature. 

The  color  of  the  thoroughbred  horse  is  now  generally  bay, 
brown,  or  chestnut,  one  or  other  of  which  will  occur  in  ninety- 
nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred.  Gray  is  not  common,  but  some- 
times appears,  as  in  the  recent  case  of  Chanticleer  and  some  of 
his  stock.  Black  also  occasionally  makes  its  appearance,  but 
not  more  frequently  than  gray.  Eoans,  duns,  sorrels,  &c.,  are 
now  quite  exploded,  and  the  above  five  colors  may  be  said  to 
complete  the  list  of  colors  seen  on  the  race-course.  Sometimes 
these  colors  are  mixed  with  a  good  deal  of  white,  in  the  shape 
of  blazes  on  the  face,  or  white  legs  and  feet ;  or  even  both  may 
occur,  and  the  horse  may  have  little  more  than  his  body  of  a 
brown,  bay,  or  chestnut.  Most  people,  however,  prefer  the  self- 
color,  with  as- little  white  as  possible  ;  and  nothing  but  the  great 


432  THE    HORSE. 

success  of  a  horse's  stock  would  induce  breeders  to  resort  to  him 
if  thej  were  largely  endowed  with  white.  Gray  hairs  mixed  iu 
the  coat,  as  in  the  Venison's,  are  rather  approved  of  than  other- 
wise ;  but  they  do  not  amount  to  a  roan,  in  which  the  gray 
hairs  equal,  or  even  more  than  that,  the  other  color  mixed  with 
them. 

The  texture  of  the  coat  and  skin,  is  a  great  proof  of  high 
breeding,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  pedigree  would  be  highly 
regarded  ;  but  when  that  is  satisfactory,  it  is  of  no  use  descend- 
ing to  the  examination  of  an  inferior  proof;  and,  therefore, 
except  as  a  sign  of  health,  the  skin  is  seldom  considered.  In 
all  thoroughbred  horses,  however,  it  is  thinner,  and  the  hair 
more  silky  than  in  common  breeds  ;  and  the  veins  are  more 
apparent  under  the  skin,  partly  from  its  thinness,  but  also  from 
their  extra  size  and  number  of  branches.  This  network  of  veins 
is  of  importance  in  allowing  the  circulation  to  be  carried  on 
during  high  exertions,  when,  if  the  blood  could  not  accumulate 
in  them,  it  would  often  choke  the  deep  vessels  of  the  heart  and 
lungs  ;  but  by  collecting  on  the  surface  great  relief  is  afforded, 
and  the  horse  is  able  to  maintain  such  a  high  and  long-con- 
tinued speed  as  would  be  impracticable  without  their  help. 
Hence  these  points  are  not  useful  as  a  mere  mark  of  breed,  but 
as  essential  to  the  very  purpose  for  which  that  breed  was 
established. 

The  mane  and  tail  shoidd  be. silky  and  not  curly,  though 
a  slight  wave  is  often  seen.  A  decided  curl  is  almost  univer- 
sally a  mark  of  degradation,  and  shows  a  stain  in  the  pedigree 
as  clearly  as  any  sign  can  do.  Here,  however,  as  in  other  cases, 
the  clear  tracing  of  that  all-powerful  proof  of  breeding  will  ujjset 
all  reasoning  founded  upon  inferior  data.  The  setting  on  of  the 
tail  is  often  regarded  as  of  great  importance,  but  it  is  chiefly 
with  reference  to  appearances ;  for  the  horse  is  not  dependent 
for  action  or  power  upon  this  appendage.  Nor  is  strength  of 
dock  of  any  value  as  a  sign,  and  I  have  known  many  very  stout 
horses  with  flaccid  and  loosely  pendant  tails. 

Between  the  form  of  West  Australian  and  that  of  a  com 
mon  country  plate-horse  there  is  a  very  wide  difference,  and 
scarcely  any  weight  will  bring  them  together  short  of  that  which 
would  crush  the  former  to  the  earth.     There  are  numberless 


EFFECT    OF    WEIGHT.  433 

cases  in  which  four  stone  might  be  carried  by  a  first-class  horse, 
over  and  above  the  feather-weight  placed  on  a  very  slow  horse, 
and  yet  the  horse  in  high  form  will  run  away  from  the  plater, 
who  cannot  by  any  means  get  over  the  ground  faster  than  the 
rate  at  which  he  can  carry  a  fair  average  weight.  An  examina- 
tion of  our  handicap  lists  will  show,  that  between  their  top  and 
bottom  there  is  generally  a  difference  of  four  or  five  stone  ;  and 
though  this  difference  is  often  effectual  in  keeping  back  the  best 
horses,  it  does  not  always  allow  the  lightest  weights  to  win,  but 
rather  those  which  are  the  lightest  as  compared  with  their  real 
powers.  But  it  is  also  well  known  that  certain  horses  can  run 
half  a  mile  at  high  speed,  but  no  more  ;  others,  a  mile ;  others 
again,  a  mile  and  a  half  or  two  miles  ;  whilst  another  class,  now 
less  common  than  formerly,  require  a  distance  of  three  or  four 
miles  to  develope  their  powers,  as  compared  with  ordinary 
horses.  These  peculiarities  are  generally  hereditary,  though 
not  always  so  ;  but  still  when  the  blood  is  known,  it  may  gen- 
erally be  surmised  that  the  individual  will  or  will  not  stay  a 
distance.  When  the  cross  in  question  is  stout  on  one  side  and 
flashy  on  the  other,  it  is  not  easy  to  guess  to  which  the  young 
scion  may  lean  ;  but  in  those  cases  where  a  horse  is  bred. from 
sires  and  dams  both  of  stout  blood,  or  the  reverse,  the  experi- 
enced hand  may,  in  almost  all  cases,  decide  beforehand  upon 
the  properties  of  the  son  or  daughter,  as  far  as  staying  qualities 
are  concerned.  Again,  there  are  some  horses  of  strong  compact 
frames,  with  short  backs  and  strong  quarters,  who  may  be  ex- 
pected to  climb  a  hill  without  difficulty,  especially  if  of  stout 
blood ;  and,  again,  there  are  others  of  lathy  frames,  with  long 
but  weak  points,  and  a  great  deal  of  daylight  under  them,  who 
may  win  over  the  fiat  for  a  mile,  or  a  mile  and  a  quarter,  but 
can  never  climb  a  hill,  or  get  beyond  the  above  distance  over  a 
flat.  All  these  points  should  be  carefully  studied  by  the  breeder 
in  getting  together  his  breeding  stock,  and  by  the  owner  in 
deciding  upon  the  stakes  for  which  he  shall  enter  his  young 
produce. 

Vol.  I.— 28 


OBSERVATIONS 

ONIMPORTED     STALLIONS 

In  the  first  Appendix  I  have  given,  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 
a  correct  list  of  the  thoroughbred  horses  imported  into  the 
United  States,  from  the  earliest  dates  to  the  present  day.  To  do 
this,  I  have  searched  every  authority  which  I  have  been  able  to 
command,  including  Pick's,  Johnson's,  Weatherby's  English 
Stud  Books,  White's  History  of  the  British  Turf,  Skinner's  and 
Edgar's  American  Stud  Books,  Skinner's  American  Farmer, 
Skinner's  and  Porter's  Turf  Register,  the  Spirit  of  the  Times, 
Colden's  Sporting  Magazine,  Mason's  Farrier,  and  the  various 
English  works  published  under  the  nom  deplume  of  Stonehenge. 

I  do  not  dare  to  pretend  that  this  list  is  complete  or  perfect ; 
for  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  early  times,  many  horses,  really 
thoroughbred,  were  imported,  which  have  escaped  the  most  dili- 
gent inquiry  and  research ;  while  many  others,  doubtless,  with 
no  pretension  to  the  title  of  thoroughbred,  have  been  made  to 
pass  muster  as  such,  on  the  bare  assertion  of  their  importers,  not 
backed  by  the  evidence  of  any  English  authority,  proving  that 
any  such  horses  ever  existed. 

In  like  manner,  in  recent  years,  I  fear — I  may  say,  I  have  no 
doubt — that  many  importations  of  thoroughbred  stock  have 
escaped  me  ;  particularly  since  the  discontinuance  of  Porter's 
Sporting  Magazine  ;  from  which  period  there  has  been  no  regu- 
larly kept  record  of  imported  animals,  beyond  such  as  may  be 
found  in  the  columns  of  the  weekly  or  daily  papers,  to  wade 


SPORTING    AUTHORITIES.  435 

through  which  during  a  space  of  twelve  years,  is  veritably  an 
almost  Herculean  labor. 

I  have,  however,  done  my  best  to  make  good  the  list,  to  the 
present  day,  as  regards  stallions  of  recent  importation. 

With  regard  to  those  of  an  earlier  date,  the  part  I  have  had 
to  perform  is  of  a  widely  differentnature.  It  was  to  decide  which 
of  the  horses  imported  as  thoroughbred  English  horses,  previous 
to  the  Revolution,  and  so  late,  I  may  say,  as  to  the  first  ten 
years  of  the  present  century,  deserve  to  be  retained  as  such  in 
a  work  aiming  at  authenticity. 

Had  I  consulted,  merely,  my  own  convictions,  I  should  have* 
at  once  discarded  from  the  list,  given  by  Skinner  and  Edgar,  of 
imported  stallions,  nearly  one-third  ;  either  because  there  is 
no  indication  whatever  that  any  such  horses  ever  existed,  or 
because  the  pedigrees,  given  with  the  names,  do  not  agree  with 
the  stud-book  pedigrees  of  the  real  horses,  owning  those  names. 

There  is  yet  another  reason  for  suspicion  and  care  ;  which  is 
the  doubt  whether — the  names  and  pedigrees  being  correct — the 
horses  themselves  ever  came  to  this  country  ;  which,  I  confess, 
in  several  instances  appears  to  me  hypothetical. 

I  find  it  stated  in  the  very  well- written  treatise  on  the  race- 
horse in  America,  in  Mason's  Farrier,  that  "  about  the  period  of 
time  last  mentioned,  *'.  e.  1800,  Colonel  Hoomes  and  many  others, 
availing  themselves  of  the  passion  for  racing,  inundated  Virginia 
with  imported  stallions,  bought  up  frequently  at  low  prices  in 
England,  having  little  reputation  there,  and  of  less  approved 
blood  ;  thereby  greatly  contaminating  the  tried  and  approved 
stocks,  which  had  long  and  eminently  distinguished  themselves 
for  their  feats  on  the  turf,  their  services  under  the  saddle,  and  as 
valuable  cavalry  horses  during  the  revolutionary  war." 

It  would  be  well  if  these  gentry  had  done  no  more  than  im- 
port worthless  stallions,  but  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
they  commonly  manufactured  the  most  impudently  mendacious 
pedigrees  for  horses,  either  not  thoroughbred  at  all,  or  of  the 
most  ordinary  and  worthless  strains  of  blood.  So  obviously 
is  this  the  case,  that  in  going  over  Edgar's  list,  whenever  a  par- 
ticularly gorgeous  pedigree  occurs,  one  at  once  finds  on  refer- 
ence to  authorities,  that  the  horse  is  not  so  much  as  named,  nor 
any  dam  to  be  discovered,  which  Q.ov\A])Tdbahly  have  borne  him, 


436  THE    HOKSE. 

in  tlie  English  stud-books.  Thus  we  have  no  less  than  fourteen 
horses,  not  mentioned  in  any  book  of  authority,  recorded  as  de- 
scended from  Greyhound,  Croft's  Partner,  Brimmer,  Makeless, 
Plaice's  White  Turk,  Dodworth,  Layton's  violet  Barb  mare,  and 
about  as  many  more,  with  the  variation  of  Dicky  Pearson,  son 
of  Dodworth,  and  Burton's  Bay  Barb  mare.  Lastly,  we 
have  one  horse,  got  by  the  Darley  Arabian,  dam  by  the  Byerly 
Turk — g.  d.  by  the  Lyster  Turk,  out  of  a  natural  Arab  mare. 
A  pedigree,  of  which  it  will  be  enough  to  say,  that  it  has 
scarcely  a  parallel,  if  it  have  a  parallel  in  the  world,  an  animal 
■going  in  three  generations  without  a  single  English-bred  sire  to 
natural  Arab  on  both  sides,  at  so  recent  a  date  in  the  history  of 
the  turf,  as  1718. 

It  is  needless,  perhaps,  to  say,  that  there  is  not  the  smallest 
reason  to  believe  that  any  such  horses  as  any  of  the  above,  so 
bred,  and  so  imported,  ever  existed. 

Importers  of  thoroughbreds  at  this  period,  appear  to  have 
caught  up  the  above  pedigrees,  as  approved  ;  perhaps  from  the 
instance  of  Morton's  Traveller,  who  did  run  back  directly  to  the 
strain  first  described  ;  and  to  have  applied  them  at  once  to  every 
animal  they  brought  to  the  country,  considering  it  sufficient  to 
guarantee  the  descent  by  their  own  signatures,  which  one  need 
not  state,  are  utterly  worthless,  except  as  waste  paper,  when  not 
corroborated  by  real  evidence. 

On  consideration,  however,  I  judged  it  the  better  way  to  pre- 
serve, in  my  list  of  these  importations,  all  the  hypothetical  or 
apocryphal  horses  alluded  to  above  ;  annexing  to  their  names 
foot  notes  signed  with  my  own  initials,  explanatory  of  the  degree 
of  credit,  attaching  to  each  of  the  pedigrees  on  actual  evidence. 

Beside  this  class  of  animals,  which  may  be,  I  think  with  pro- 
priety wholly  set  aside,  so  far  as  the  idea  is  concerned  of  their 
having  transmitted,  to  the  American  racer  of  the  present  day,  any 
tincture  of  the  blood  ignorantly  or  fraudulently  ascribed  to  them, 
there  is  another  which  must  be  viewed  very  diflferently. 

This  class  consists  of  horses,  which  certainly  toere  imported  ; 
and  which  as  certainly  were  of  thorough  blood,  and  of  good 
thorough  blood  also  ;  but  in  whose  pedigree  by  accident,  negli- 
gence, or  want  of  consideration  for  the  value  of  accurate  details, 
a  link  or  two  have  been  lost.     Much  difficulty  has  arisen  from 


BLOOD    OF   MAEES.  437 

the  almost  total  neglect  of  the  pedigree  of  dams,  which  are  those 
most  necessary  to  be  preserved ;  since  a  known  stallion's  pedi- 
gree is  always  at  once  traceable  ;  while  to  say  that  a  certain  mare 
is  by  Eclipse  out  of  a  Fox  mare,  or  a  Cub  mare,  or  any  other 
mare,  is  to  say  nothing.  Since,  for  aught  proved  by  that  show- 
ing, the  Fox  or  Cub  mare  in  question,  might  have  been  the 
daughter  of  a  Flander's  Cart  mare,  or  a  Cleveland  Bay  hunter 
of  the  old  school,  and  of  course,  utterly  worthless  as  a  dam  of 
racers. 

And  yet  such  was  to  so  great  a  degree  the  received  mode  of 
entering  blood  mares,  on  their  first  importations,  that  in  few  of 
the  most  celebrated  early  importations,  even  of  the  most  unde- 
niable blood  mares,  and  dams  of  our  most  distinguished  winners, 
can  their  pedigrees  be  established  beyond  the  possibility  of  a 
dispute. 

Such  is  the  case  of  Col.  Delancey's  Cub  mare,  of  the  Pot- 
8os  mare,  dam  of  Miller's  Damsel,  and  grand  dam  of  American 
Eclipse,  and  of  many  others,  which  are  yet  beyond  the  possibil- 
ity of  a  doubt,  pure  thoroughbreds  ;  having  so  shown  them- 
selves by  the  transmission  of  their  qualities,  through  many  gene- 
rations of  racers  and  the  sires  and  dams  of  racers ;  a  thing  im- 
possible for  chance  horses. 

Much  irretrievable  confusion  has  arisen,  doubtless,  from 
names  having  been  given,  after  their  importation  hither,  to  colts 
and  fillies  unnamed  in  the  Stud  Books  ;  and  yet  more  from  the 
multiplication  of  the  same  names,  those  names  being  identical 
with  the  world-famous  title  of  some  English  sire. 

For  an  example  of  this  there  are  not  less  than  three  imported 
Eclipses,  one  of  which,  Harris's,  is  not  doubted  to  be  a  full- 
blooded  liorse,  a  racer  and  getter  of  racers  in  a  high  form,  whose 
blood  still  bears  repute  in  Yirginia ;  and  not  one  of  the  three 
distinctly  referable  to  any  colt,  on  which  one  can  lay  his  finger 
in  the  Stud  Book. 

In  the  same  way,  there  appear  to  have  been  two  Travellers, 
Moreton's  and  Strange's,  both  imported  ;  and  both  of  these 
have  been  referred  to  two  or  more  dififerent  animals,  and  both 
trace,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  Greyhound,  Makeless,  Brimmer, 
White  Turk,  Dodsworth,  Layton  Barb  mare. 

Still  it  is  probable,  I  should  rather  say  certain^  that  this,  in 


438  THE    HORSE. 

the  case  of  Moreton's  Traveller,  is  the  real  pedigree ;  and  that 
he  was  the  bay  colt  got  by  Partner  out  of  Bay  Bloody  But- 
tocks, in  1745  '46  or  '47,  own  brother  to  the  celebrated  "Wid- 
dington  mare.  Bay  Bloody  Buttocks,  whose  dam  was  by  Grey- 
hound, &c.,  &c.,  as  above,  bore  colts  or  tillies  from  1733  to  '35 
inclusive  to  Partner,  in  1736  missed  to  Crab,  from  1737  to  '41 
colts  or  fillies  to  Partner  ;  in  '42  missed  to  Partner,  from  '43  to 
'47  inclufeive,  first  a  filly  and  then  three  colts  to  Partner,  in  '48 
missed  to  Partner,  and  in  '49  bore  her  last  colt  to  Forester. 
Old  Traveller  of  the  Stud  Book  was  by  Partner,  dam  by  Al- 
manzor. 

Coatworth's  Traveller  never  came  to  America. 
And  Strange's  Traveller,  first  called  Charlemont,  then  Big 
Ben,  and  then  most  absurdly^  in  America,  Traveller^  was 
by  O'Kelly's  Eclipse  out  of  a  Herod  mare,  dam  by  Blank ; 
her  dam  by  Snip  out  of  Lady  Thigh,  who  was  daughter  of  Grey 
Bloody  Buttocks,  own  sister  to  Bay  Bloody  Buttocks,  dam  of 
Moreton's  Traveller. 

These  two  horses  do  really  trace  to  the  Greyhound,  &c.,  line 
alluded  to  above,  and  I  doubt  not  their  excellence  and  popular- 
ity, in  Virginia, were  the  cause  of  the  falsification  of  above  half 
a  score  of  pedigrees  into  the  like  form. 

Tliis  is  a  matter  of  very  considerable  importance  to  the 
American  Turf ;  since  old,  or  Moreton's,  Traveller  got  Tryall 
and  Yorick  out  of  imported  Blazella,  Barwell's  Traveller  out  of 
a  Janus  or  Lycurgus  mare  ;  Lloyds'  Traveller  out  of  a  Jenny 
Cameron  mare,  Tristram  Shandy  out  of  a  Janus  mare,  Ariel  and 
Partner  out  of  Col.  Tasker's  Selima. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Mr.  Edgar  has  left,  in  his  invaluable 
Stud  Book,  the  pedigrees  of  these  two  Travellers  as  question- 
able. There  is,  however,  no  question  about  it ;  owing  to  the 
fortunate  fact  of  the  dam  of  the  one  and  the  great-great-grand- 
dam  of  the  other  being  named  mares.  Bay  Bloody  Buttocks, 
and  Lady  Thigh,  instead  of  merely  bay  filly  by  So  and  So ; 
which  leads  to  their  direct  identification,  without  the  possibility 
of  mistake. 

There  would  have  been  no  difficulty,  whatevei-,  but  for  the 
absurd  chopping  and  changing  of  names. 

There   were   already   three  Travellers,  in   England,   when 


THE    GKETHOUND    MAKES.  439 

Moreton's  bay  colt,  out  of  Bay  Bloody  Buttocks,  was  so  called  ; 
and  at  least  half  a  dozen  in  America,  when  Charlemont,  alias 
Ben,  the  great  g.  g.  g.  nephew  of  Bay  Bloody  Buttocks,  re- 
ceived a  third  alias  of  Traveller,  for  the  very  purpose  one  would 
say  of  breeding  confusion. 

I  have  taken  considerable  interest  in  these  quasi  Greyhound 
mare  pedigrees,  and  have  traced  it  so  far  as  to  satisfy  myself 
that  at  least  two-thirds  of  them  are  direct  and  wilful  forgeries. 

It  appears  that  there  is  but  one  Greyhound  mare  of  suffi- 
cient note  to  be  named  in  the  books,  whose  dam  was  by  Make- 
less — viz.,  Brown  Farewell.  She  had  five  fillies.  Bay  and  Grey 
Bloody  Buttocks,  Little  Partner,  Red  Rose,  and  a  Bay  filly  g.  g. 
g.  dam  of  Enterprise.  All  the  daughters  of  the  two  Bloody 
Buttocks  mares  are  named  and  well  known.  Little  Partner  had 
but  one  filly,  Cat  by  Cade.  Red  Rose  had  fillies  by  Lesang, 
Syphon,  Matchem,  Alfred  and  Magnet,  and  the  Bay  filly,  it 
would  seem,  but  one  by  the  Bolton  Starling.  So  that  all  the 
pedigrees  which  run  to  this  strain  must  necessarily  be  false,  un- 
less Greyhound  be  preceded  by  Bloody  Buttocks  or  Partner, 
and  these  again  by  one  of  the  following,  viz.,  by  Partner,  For- 
ester, Cade,  Lesang,  Syphon,  Matchem,  Alfred,  Magnet  or 
Starling. 

Without  pursuing  this  farther,  I  would  observe  that  it  is  very 
far  from  being  my  wish  or  object  to  throw  doubts  on  established 
pedigrees,  or  to  endeavor  to  vitiate,  in  public  opinion,  strains  of 
blood,  which  have  been  admitted  to  pass  muster. 

It  is  my  object,  on  the  contrary,  to  verify,  not  to  vitiate  ;  and 
1  am  far,  indeed,  from  joining  in  the  absurd  outcry,  that  every 
horse  is  necessarily  coarse-bred  or  cold-blooded,  because  he  can- 
not he  proved,  directly,  to  be  pure  bred.  I  perceive  that  the 
circumstances  of  the  country,  at  the  time  when  importation  be- 
gan, the  great  laxity  in  keeping  proper  registers,  and  the  fatal 
facility  of  forgery,  have  rendered  it  almost  impossible  that  it 
should  be  otherwise. 

I  maintain  that  where  there  has  been  a  chance  horse,  him 
self  a  good  racer,  he  has  invariably  failed  and  must  of  necessity 
fail  as  a  getter  of  runners  in  the  first  or  second  generation  of 
his  stock,  as  was  notoriously  the  case  with  Potomac,  and  other 
horses,  which  might  be  named. 


440  THE    HORSE. 

I  allow,  on  the  other  hand,  that  where  we  have  so  deficient 
a  pedigree  of  a  horse  as  one  which  only  informs  that  he  was  a 
son,  a  grandson,  or  a  great-grandson  of  an  imported  Cub  mare, 
or  PotSos  mare,  or  any  other  mare — though,  unquestionably,  I 
should  hesitate  very  long  before  putting  a  mare  to  a  horse  so 
descended,  until  I  had  seen  the  stock  of  the  collateral  branches, 
and  his  own  stock,  thoroughly  tested — and  yet  see  him  and  all 
his  brothers  and  sisters,  and  his  own  stock  and  the  collateral 
stock  all  distinguishing  itself,  generation  after  generation,  it  is 
worse  than  idle  to  question  the  pedigree  or  blood  of  such  an 
animal. 

I  now  come  to  the  importation  of  mares,  and  here  I  regret 
to  say  that  the  difficulty  is  infinitely  greater  than  it  has  been, 
even,  with  the  horses. 

Mr.  Edgar,  not  finding,  as  I  understand,  his  labors  suffi- 
ciently remunerated  in  the  sales  of  the  first  volume  of  his  Stud- 
Book,  lett  it  incomplete,  without  entering  at  all  upon  the  mares, 
whether  native  or  imported ;  so  that  there  is  scarcely  any  start- 
ing point,  beyond  scattered  notices,  with  the  exception  of  the 
alphabetical  list  in  Mason's  Farrier,  of  which  I  have  largely  and 
thankfully  availed  myself. 

Tlie  early  importations  of  mares,  even  the  most  famous,  are 
far  more  loosely  recorded  than  the  stallions,  though  for  what 
reason  it  is  impossible  to  conjecture ;  and  all  that  it  is  in  my 
power  to  do  is  to  submit  as  perfect  a  list  as  I  can  command, 
and  to  ask  pardon  for  necessary  and  unavoidable  imperfections. 


LIST 

OF 

STALLIONS    IMPORTED    FROM    ENGLAND, 

FROM   BEFORE    THE    RETOLUTION    TO    THE    PRESENT    DAT. 

Abjer — Foaled  1817.  By  Old  Truffle,  dam  Briseis  by  Beningborough, 
g.  d.  Lady  Jane  by  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  Paulina  by  Florizel. 

Alabama. 
Action,  b.  colt — Foaled  1836.      Out  of  Miss  Craven,   the   dam   of 
Paganini  by  Master  Lowe,  her  dam  by  Soothsayer,  her  g.  dam  by 
Buzzard,  out  of  sister  to  Bangtail   by  Highflyer,  Catherine  by 
Young  Marske,  G-entle  Kitty  by  Sylvia. 

R.  F,  Stockton,  N.  J. 

Action,  bl.  colt — Foaled  1837.  Out  of  Panthea  by  Comus  or  Black- 
lock,  her  dam  Manuella  by  Dick  Andrews,  out  of  Mandane  by  Pot- 
8os.  Charleston,  S.  G. 

Admiral — Foaled  1799.  Own  brother  to  Diomed  by  Florizel,  out  of 
Spectator  mare,  sister  to  Juno.  J.  Delancy,  New  Torh. 

Admiral  Nelson — Foaled  1795.  By  John  Bull  out  of  Olivia,  im- 
ported into  Virginia.  W.  Lightfoot. 

To  this  horse,  in  a  copy  of  Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  once  the 
property  of  that  excellent  turfman,  the  late  Mr.  C.  H.  Hall,  of 
which  I  am  kindly  permitted  the  use,  by  my  friend.  Dr.  Sayre, 
valuable  by  its  many  MS.  notes,  I  find  the  following ; — 

"  Admiral  Nelson  was  imported  into  Virginia,  and  was  the  sire 
of  some  very  good  horses ;  among  them,  Olivia,  out  of  Spot,  dam 
of  Merino  Ewe.    Olivia  was  the  dam  of  Kinderhook,  her  only  foal, 


442  THE    HOUSE. 

raised  by  Charles  Henry  Hall,  of  New  York.     Kiuderhook  was  got 
by  American  Eclipse. 

AiNDERBY,  ch.  h. — Foaled  1832.  By  A^elocipede  out  of  Kate,  by  Cot- 
ton, her  dam  Miss  Garforth,  by  Walton,  Hyacinthus  Zara  by 
Delpini,  Flora  by  King  Fergus,  &c.  L.  I.  Polk,  Tenn. 

Albion — By  Cain  or  Actaeon,  dam  by  Comus  or  Blacklock. 

Alderman — Foaled  1778.  By  PotSos  out  of  Lady  Bolingbroke,  by 
Sc[uirrel  out  of  Cypron,  Herod's  dam.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

J.  Banks. 

Alexander — By  Old  Alexander,  son  of  Eclipse,  dam  Sweetbrier,  grand 
dam  out  of  Monimia's  dam  by  Alcides,  Crab,  Snap's  dam.  But 
there  is  no  mare  Sweetbrier  in  the  Stud  Book,  and  the  manner  in 
which  the  dam  of  Sweetbrier  is  recorded  as  out  of  the  Alcides 
mare,  who  was  Monimia's  dam,  without  any  record  of  the  sire, 
increases  the  suspicious  character  of  this  pedigree.         H.  W.  H. 

Said  to  be  bred  by  Sir  William  Wynne.     Imported  into  Vir- 
ginia.    Not  in  Weatherby's  S.  B.  W.  Smallby. 

Alexander — Foaled  1791.  By  Champion  out  of  Countess,  by  the 
Northumbei-laud  Arabian.     Imported  into  New  York. 

All-Fours — Foaled  1772.  By  All-Fours  out  of  Blank  mare,  dam  Bay 
Starling  by  Bay  Bolton.  Imported  into  Massachusetts  or  Con 
necticut. 

Ambassador — By  Emilius,  dam  Trapes  by  Tramp, 

Americus — Foaled  1755.  By  Babraham,  out  of  Creeping  Molly  by 
Second,  dam  by  Evan's  Arabian,  grand  dam  by  Cartouch. 

W.  Maclin. 
Amurath,  ch.  colt — Foaled  1841.     Out  of  Champion,  ch.  mare. 

Louisiana. 
Amurath — Foaled  1832.     By  Langar  out  of  Armida,  by  Rinaldo. 

Ant^us — A  horse  bred  by  John  Ward  of  Kent.  Said  to  be  by  Specta- 
tor. He  covered  in  the  season  of  1771,  near  Jackborough,  South 
Carolina.  He  must  not  be  confounded  with  Anta3us  by  Alexander, 
or  Antaeus  by  Phlegon,  neitlier  of  which  were  imported.  He  is  not 
in  the  Stud  Book ;  and,  as  his  dam  is  not  named,  cannot  be  traced 
out.  He  is  inserted  here  on  the  authority  of  Millikcn's  History 
of  South  Carolina  Turf 

Apparition — Foaled   1827.      By    Spectre,  dam   Young  Cranberry  by 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  443 

Thunderbolt,  grand  dam  Cranberry  by  Sir  Peter    Teazle.     Im- 
ported into  New  York  by  Mr.  Connall. 

Archduke— Foaled  1796.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  out  of  Horatio,  by 
Eclipse,  out  of  Countess  by  Blank.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

John  Hoomes. 

Archer — Foaled  1760.  By  Faggergill  out  of  Eclipse  mare,  grand  dam 
by  Young  Cade,  out  of  Miss  Thigh,  by  Rib.  Imported  into  Vir- 
ginia. John  Tayloe. 

Archibald — Foaled  1801.  By  Walnut,  out  of  Bay  Javelin,  by  Jav- 
elin, out  of  Y.  Flora,  by  Highflyer;  Walnut  was  by  Highflyer,  out 
of  sister  to  Pumpkin.     Imported  into  South  Carolina. 

Aristotle — Imported  into  Virginia  1764.  Said  to  be  by  the  Cullen 
Arabian,  Crab,  Hobgoblin,  Grodolphin  Arabian,  Cream  Cheeks  by 
Spanker.  Not  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book.  There  is  no  such  horse 
in  the  books  as  Ci'eam  Cheeks. 

Arrakooker — Foaled  1789.  By  Drone,  out  of  Camilla  by  Trentliam, 
grand  dam  Coquette  by  the  Compton  Barb,  out  of  Sister  to  Reg- 
ulus.     Imported  into  Pennsylvania. 

Autocrat — Foaled  1822,  By  Grand  Duke,  out  of  Olivetta,  by  Sir 
Oliver.     Imported  into  New  York,  1832.        William  Jackson. 

Babraham — Foaled  1775.  By  Wildair,  dam  Babraham,  g.  dam  Sloe, 
g.  g.  d.  Bartlett's  Childers,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Counsellor,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Snake,  &c.     Not  in  Weatherby. 

Babraham — Foaled  1759.     Got  by  Old  Fearnought,  Sih^er,  &c. 

Bachelor — Foaled  175.3.  By  Blaze,  dam  by  Smiling  Tom.  Imported 
into  Virginia,  1662. 

Badger — Said  to  be  by  Bosphorus,  dam  by  Black  and  All  Black,  grand 
dam  Flying  Childers.     Imported  into  Maryland  about  1770. 

Governor  Eden.     . 

Bajazet — Said  to  be  by  Lord  March's  Bajazet,  dam  by  Crab,  grand  dam 
Hobgoblin,  g.  g.  d.  White  Foot,  out  of  Moonah  Barb  mare.  Not 
in  Weatherby. 

Barefoot — Foaled  1820.  By  Tramp,  out  of  Rosamond,  by  Buzzard. 
Winner  of  the  Ledger  in  1823.  Imported  into  Massachusetts,  but 
did  no  good,  1828.  Sir  Isaac  Coffin. 

Baronet — Foaled  1782.  By  Vertumnus,  out  of  Penultima,  by  Snap. 
Imported  into   New  York,  by  William   Constable,  Esq.     He  was 


444  THE    HORSE. 

the  sire  of  Financier  and  Jack-on-the-Green,  but  had  very  few 
thoroughbred  mares. 

Bat  Bolton — By  English  Bay  Bolton,  Blossom,  Sloe,  llegulus.  Im- 
ported, it  is  not  known  when,  or  whither.     Not  in  Weatherby. 

Bay  Colt — By  Bosphorus,  Tartar  mare,  Regulus,  Old  Cade,  Bay  Bol- 
ton. Imported  into  South  Carolina  when  he  was  eight  years  old. 
See  Milliken's  History  of  South  Carolina  Turf. 

Bay  Colt — Young  Highflyer  by  Highflyer.  Foaled  1785.  Own  sister 
to  Tandem  by  Syphon,  Regulus,  Snip,  &c.  This  horse  was  the 
sire  of  Amhurst,  out  of  Tippoo  Saib's  dam. 

C.  H.  Hall's  Notes. 

Bay  Colt — By  Balance.  Foaled  1791.  Dam  Marianne  by  Squirrel, 
grand  dam  Miss  Meredith  by  Cade,  Little  Bartley  mare.  Brought 
to  Berkshire  county,  Mass.,  by  Mr.  James  of  Pittsfield. 

'C.  H.  Hall's  Notes. 

Bay  Colt — By  Paymaster.  Foaled  1785.  Le  Sang  mare,  dam  by 
Rib,  out  of  the  g.  dam  of  Eclipse.  Imported  by  Mr.  Harriott, 
into  Newark,  N.  J.,  who  also  imported  Gray  Highlander  by  Bour- 
deaux. 

Bay  Colt — By  Blank.  Foaled  1761  or  1763.  Dam  by  Partner,  own 
sister  to  Miss  Partner,  dam  by  Makeless,  Brimmer,  Plaice's  White 
Turk,  Dodworth,  Lay  ton  Barb  mare.  This  is  the  horse  about 
which  there  has  been  so  much  discussion  as  Fallow,  Fellow  or  Fal- 
lower.  See  Milliken's  History  of  the  Turf  in  South  Carolina,  p. 
40.  He  was  the  g.  g.  g.  d.  sire  of  Tinioleon,  and  has  been — ab- 
surdly— represented  to  be  a  dray  horse.  H.  W.  H. 

Bay  Colt — By  Matchem.  Foaled  1773.  Dam  Lady  by  Sweepstakes, 
out  of  Syphon's  dam. 

This  horse  was  afterward   called  Matchem   in  South   Carolina, 
whither  he  was  imported.     See  Milliken's  History. 

Bay  Colt — By  Babraham,  out  of  a  Second  mare,  g.  d.  by  Starling,  was 
imported  into  South  Carolina,  and  was  covering  in  1772,  at  Mr. 
Arthur  Middleton's  plantation  on  the  Ashley  river.  See  3Iilli- 
ken's  History. 

Bay  Richmond — Foaled  1769.  By  Feather,  dam  Matron,  by  the  Cul- 
len  Arabian,  g.  d.  by  Bartlett's  Childers,  out  of  dam  of  the  Warlock 
Galloway. 

Brought  to  New  York,  and  left  good  stock.        C.  H.  Hall. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  445 

Bedford — Foaled  1792.  By  Dungannon  out  of  Fairy.  Imported  into 
Virginia.  John  Hoomes. 

This  horse's  blood  is  to  be  traced  in  all  the  best  horses  in 
America. 

Belshazzar,  ch.  h.— Foaled  1830.  By  Blacklock,  out  of  Manuella,  by 
Dick  Andrews,  grand  dam  Mandane  by  PotSo's,  g.  g.  d.  Young 
Camilla,  by  Woodpecker,  &c.,  &c.  New  Orleans,  La. 

Bergamot — Foaled  1788.  By  Highflyer,  out  of  Orange  Girl,  by 
Watcher.     Imported  into  Virginia,  1796.  W.  Lightfoot. 

Berner's  Comus,  br.  h.— Foaled  1827.  By  Comus,  out  of  Rotterdam, 
by  Juniper ;  grand  dam  Spotless,  by  Walton ;  g.  g.  d.  by  Trum- 
pator ;  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Highflyer.  E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

Black  Prince— Foaled  1760.  By  Babraham,  out  of  Riot.  Imported 
into  New  York.  Aaron  Ramsay. 

Blaze — Said  to  be  imported  into  Virginia  in  1794.  By  Vandal,  Trun- 
cheon, Regulus;  Eastby  Snake,  Partner,  Egyptian,  Gray  Wood- 
stock.    Not  in  Weatherby.  Hugh  Nelson. 

Blossom— Foaled  1795.  By  Bourdeaux,  Highflyer,  Eclipse,  Young 
Cade,  Bolton,  Little  John,  son  of  Bald  Galloway,  a  foreign  horse 
of  Sir  John  Gascoigne's. 

This  horse  is  recorded  as  hay  in  Weatherby ;  but  he  was  a 
gray,  and  is  recorded  to  have  been  got  in  1793.  But  the  High- 
flyer mare,  his  dam,  bore  her  first  foal,  a  gray  filly,  to  Bourdeaux, 
in  1794. 

Bluster — Foaled  1803.  By  Orlando,  dam  Pegasus,  grand  dam  by 
Highflyer.     Imported  into  Virginia,  1818.  Robert  Stigh. 

This  mare  was  one  of  Col.  Thornton's,  probably  Diddler's  dam. 

H.  W.  H. 

Boaster— Foaled  1795.  By  Dungannon,  dam  by  Justice,  grand  dam 
Marianne,  by  Squirrel,  g.  g.  d.  Miss  Meredith,  by  Cade,  g.  g.  d. 
Little  Hatley  mare.     Imported  into  Virginia,  1811. 

Mr.  Bell. 

Bolton— Foaled  1752.  By  Shock,  dam  Partner,  grand  dam  Makeless, 
g.  g.  d.  Brimmer,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Place's  White  Turk,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d 
Dodsworth,  out  of  Layton's  Barb  mare.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

W.  Lightfoot. 


'i^Q  THE    HORSE. 

BoNNTFACK — Called  also  Master  Stephen,  foaled  1768.  By  a  son  of 
Regulus,  Blunderbuss,  Place's  Wliite  Turk,  a  Barb  mare.  This 
pedigree  is  not  iu  Weatherby's  Stud  Book.  Not  the  horse  imported 
into  Virginia.  Mk.  Tkexch. 

BoRROCK  Billy — By  old  Cade,  out  of  the  Godolphin,  out  of  Eastby 
Suake  mare,  g.  d.  by  Partner,  g.  g.  d.  by  Croft's  Egyptian,  Wood- 
cock. He  is  said  to  have  been  imported  into  South  Carolina  before 
the  Revolution. 

Brilliant — Foaled  1G91.  By  Phenomenon,  dam  Faith  by  Pacolet, 
grand  dam  Atalanta  by  Matchem,  g.  g.  d.  Lass  of  the  Mill  by 
Oroonoko,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Traveller,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  3Iiss  Makeless. 
Imported  into  Virginia,  1706.  Joux  Tayloe. 

Brunswick — Said  to  be  by  Oroonoko,  dam  Babraham,  grand  dam  Fly- 
ing Childers.     Not  to  be  found  in  Weatherby. 

James  McDonald. 

Brian  O'Lynn— Foaled  1796.  By  Aston  out  of  Le  Sang  mare,  grand 
dam  by  Regulus,  g.  g.  d.  sister  to  Bay  Brocklesby.  Aston  was  by 
Saltram,  out  of  Calash.     Imported  into  North  Carolina  1808. 

James  Turner. 

Brutus— Foaled  1748.  By  Regulus,  dam  Miss  Lay  ton  by  Partner, 
grand  dam  by  a  colt  by  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  Turk,  out  of  sister 
to  Leedes,g.  g.  d.  by  Wliynot,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Wilkinson's  Bay  Arabian, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Natural  Barb  mare.     Imported  into  South  Carolina, 

Brutus — By  Old  Brutus.  The  name  of  his  dam  not  stated.  Said  to 
have  been  imported  into  South  Carolina,  before  the  Revolution. 
See  Milliken's  History  of  South  Carolina  Turf    Not  in  Weatherby. 

Bucephalus— Said  to  be  foaled  1758.  By  Locust,  dam  by  Cade,  grand 
dam  Partner,  g.  g.  d.  Makeless,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Brimmer,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Place's  White  Turk,  Layton  Barb  mare.  Not  in  Weatherby's 
Stud  Book. 

BuFFCO AT— Foaled  1742.  By  the  Godolphin  Arab,  out  of  Silverlocks 
by  the  Bald  Galloway,  grand  dam  by  Acaster  Turk,  g.  g.  d.  Leedes, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Spanker.  Joseph  Wells. 

Bulle  Rock— Foaled  1718.  By  Darley  Arabian,  dam  Byerly  Turk, 
grand  dam  Lystor  Turk,  g.  g.  d.  Arabian  mare.  Said  to  have  been 
imported  into  Virginia  in  1730.  Samuel  Glst. 

There  is  no  such  horse  in  Weatherby.     This  pedigree  and  those 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  447 

of  Blaze,  Bonnyface,  and  Bucephalus,  are   suspiciously  direct  and 
perfect. 

Buzzard — Foaled  1787.  By  Woodpecker,  dam  Misfortune  by  Dux, 
grand  dam  Curiosity  by  Snap,  g.  g.  d.  by  Ptcgulus,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Bart- 
lett's  Childers,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Honeywood's  Arabian,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
True  Blue's  dam.  Dux  was  by  Matchem,  out  of  Duchess,  by  White- 
more,  out  of  Miss  Slamerkin.     Imported  into  Virginia  1804. 

John  Hoojies. 
I  find  a  note  of  Mr.  C.  H.  Hall's  to  the  name  of  Firebrand,  by 
Buzzard,  out  of  Fanny,  sister  to  King  Fergus,  by  Eclipse,  grand 
dam  luting's  Polly,  by  Othello,  g.  g.  d.  Fanny,  by  Tartar,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Starling,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Childers.  Firebrand  foaled  in  1802.  "  This 
horse  was  imported  into  South  Carolina,  and  was  aftei'wards  called 
"  Buzzard." 

Cade — Foaled  in  1757.  Imported  into  South  Carolina  as  a  five-year- 
old,  in  1762.  He  is  said,  by  Mr.  Milliken,  in  his  Turf  History  of 
South  Carolina,  to  have  been  a  "  descendant  "  of  Old  Cade,  out  of 
Hutton's  famous  mare  Wormwood,  which  is  described  as  a  mare 
of  great  repute  in  England.  But  there  is  no  mare  of  the  name  in 
the  Stud  Book.  Mr.  Milliken  also  states  that  Cade's  brother,  Mr. 
Wai-reu's  Sportsman,  was  a  good  winner  in  England  in  1761.  But 
Warren's  Sportman  was  not  a  brother  of  Cade,  if  this  pedigree  be 
correct,  as  he  was  got  by  Old  Cade  out  of  Silvertail  by  Heneage's 
Whitenose.  And  Silvertail  produced  in  1757  a  roan  filly  Joan  by 
Regulus. 

On  the  whole,  this  horse  seems  to  be  but  of  doubtful  authen- 
ticity- H.  W.  H. 

Camel — Foaled  1822.  By  Whalebone,  dam  by  Selim,  grand  dam 
Maiden  by  Sir  Peter. 

Camel,  bl.  c. — Foaled  1836.  Out  of  Matilda  by  Orville,  her  dam  by 
Sorcerer,  out  of  Matilda  by  Whiskey.        K.  F.  Stockton,  N.  J. 

Cannon — Foaled  1789.  By  Dungannon,  out  of  Miss  Spindleshanks, 
by  Omar  Starling,  Godolphin  Arabian,  &c.  Gen.  Lynan. 

I  find  a  note  of  Mr.  C.  H.  Hall's  to  the  name  of  Miss  Spindle- 
shanks,  dam  of  Cannon  by  Dungannon,  foaled  1789  ; — "  This  colt 
was  brought  to  Boston  by  Gren.  Lyman,  and  sold  to  Isaac  Denison, 
of  Albany.  He  stood  for  two  years  at  Pittstown,  Rensselaer 
County."  C.  H.  H. 


448  THE    HOR8B. 

Cardinal  Puff — Foaled  1803.  By  Cardinal,  dam  Luna  by  Herod, 
grand  dam  Proserpine,  own  sister  to  Eclipse.  Imported  into  Mary- 
land.    Bred  by  Lord  Grosvenor.  Samuel  Harrison. 

Carlo — Said  to  be  imported  into  Pennsylvania.  No  date  of  importation 
or  foaling.  Balloon,  Javelin,  King  Herod,  Snap,  Ilegulus,  Godol- 
phin  Arabian.  C.  Irvine. 

No  such  horse  in  Weatherby.  Very  doubtful.  Out  of  thirty- 
six  Herod  mares,  in  the  Stud  Book,  but  one  had  a  foal  to  Javelin, 
and  that  was  Hanger.  Furthermore,  of  four  Balloons,  in  Wea- 
therby, by  Telemachus,  Highflyer,  Dorimant,  and  Alfred,  not  one 
was  out  of  a  Javelin  mare. 

Carlo,  I  presume,  is  wholly  apocryphal.  H.  W.  H. 

Carver — Foaled  1770.  Said  to  be  imported  into  Virginia  in  1774. 
Not  in  the  Stud  Book.  Pedigree  worse  than  doubtful — Young 
Snap,.  Blank,  Babraham,  &c.,  &c.  ! !  Lyolia  Mayle. 

Celer — Foaled  1774,  By  Old  Janus,  dam  Brandon  by  Aristotle, 
Cullen  Arabian,  &c.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

Centinel — Foaled  1758.  By  Blank,  out  of  Naylor,  by  Cade,  out  of 
Spectator's  dam.     Imported  into  South  Carolina  in  1767. 

Immediately  on  his  arrival  he  challenged  any  horse  in  the  pro- 
vince to  run  four-mile  heats,  he  to  carry  10  stone  against  9  stone. 

Cetus — Foaled  1827.  By  Whalebone,  dam  Lamia,  by  Gohanna,  grand 
dam  Certhia,  by  Woodpecker — Trentham — Gunegonde  by  Blank. 

Chance — Foaled  1787.  By  Lurcher,  dam  Kecovery,  by  Hyder  Ally, 
grand  dam  Perdita  by  Herod.  Lurcher  was  by  Dungannon,  out 
of  a  Vertumnus  or  Eclipse  mare,  dam  by  the  Compton  Barb,  out 
of  Sister  to  Regulator.     Imported  into  Virginia  1811. 

John  Tayloe. 

Chariot— Foaled  1789.  By  Highflyer,  out  of  Potosi,  by  Eclipse,  grand 
dam  Blank,  g.  g.  d.  Godolphin  Arabian,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Snip,  g.  g.  g.  g. 
d.  Widdrington  mare.     Imported  into  Virginia,  1802. 

H.  H.  Lyne. 

Chateau  Margaux— Foaled  1822.  By  Whalebone,  out  of  Wasp,  by 
Gohanna,  grand  dam  by  Highflyer,  g.  g.  d.  Chanticleer's  dam,  by 
Eclipse.     Imported  into  Virginia,  1834. 

Chateau  Margaux  won  the  Claret  Stakes,  and  many  other 
great  prizes.  He  was  the  best  four  mile  horse  and  distance 
runner   in   England.      He   was   bred   by  my  great  uncle.   Lord 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  449 

Egremont,  and  was  expected  to  do  great  things  as  a  foal  getter. 
He  has  done  nothing  in  America,  which  I  attribute  to  his  having 
served  two  hundred  mares  in  one  season  in  1829  or  '30,  when 
standing  at  Ledston,  in  Yorkshire,  and  probably  as  many  more  in 
subsequent  seasons,  after  I  left  England.  H.  W.   H. 

Childers — Said  to  have  been  imported  into  Virginia  in  1751.  By 
Blaze,  son  of  Flying  Childers,  dam  by  Fox,  grand  dam  Bald  Gallo- 
way. This  horse  is  not  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  nor  did  any 
Fox  mare  there  recorded  bear  a  son  to  Blaze.  Still,  as  the  pedi- 
gree is  given  by  Col.  John  Tayloe,  it  may  be  relied  on.  Probably 
the  colt  was  unnamed  when  imported,  or,  perhaps,  his  name  was 
altered  after  his  arrival.  H.  W.   H. 

Citizen — Foaled  1785.  By  Pacolet,  out  of  Princess,  by  Turk,  grand- 
dam  Fairy  Queen,  out  of  Routh's  Black  Eyes.  Sent  first  to  the 
West  Indies  or  North  Carolina,  thence  to  Virginia,  where  he  got 
good  stock,  as  Ariadne,  Pacolet,  and  others.         N.  W.  Carney. 

Claret— Foaled  1830.  By  Chateau  Margaux,  dam  by  Partisan,  Silver- 
tail  by  Grohanna,  Orville,  &c. 

Clifden— Foaled  1797.  By  Alfred,  dam  by  Florizel,  grand  dam 
Matchem,  out  of  Brown  Regulus,  by  Regulus,  out  of  Miss  Starling. 
He  was  imported  into  the  District  of  Columbia  in  1800. 

W.  Thornton. 

Clifton— Foaled  1797.  First  called  Grinder.  Bred  by  Mr.  Clifton. 
By  Abba  Thulle,  out  of  Eustatia,  by  Highflyer,  Wren,  by  Wood- 
pecker, out  of  Sir  Peter  Teazle's  dam.  Abba  Thulle  was  by 
Young  Marske,  out  of  Chatsworth  mare,  g.  d.  by  Engineer,  g.  g.  d. 
Wilson's  Arabian,  &c.  Abba  Thulle  went  to  Russia.  Clifton  was 
imported  into  Maryland.  ^ 

Clockfast — Foaled  in  1774.  Bred  by  Lord  Grosvenor.  He  was  a 
gray,  by  Gimcrack,  out  of  Miss  Ingram.  She  by  Regulus,  g.  d. 
Miss  Doe  by  Sudbury,  g.  g.  d.  Miss  Mayes,  by  Bartlett's  Childers. 
He  was  imported  into  Virginia,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  racer  in 
a  high  form.  He  has  left  his  mark  unmistakably  on  the  Southern 
blood.  Captain  McNab. 

Lord  Grosvenor's  stable  was  highly  popular  among  early  Vir- 
ginia breeders,  and  his  Gimcrack  blood  more  particularly. 

H.  W.  H. 

Clown — Foaled  1785.    Was  got  by  Bourdeaux,  out  of  an  Eclipse  mare, 
Vol.  I.— 29 


450  THK   HOKSE. 

grand  dam  Chryseis  by  Careless,  g.  g.  d.  Snappina  by  Snap,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
by  Moore's  Partner,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Childers.  Imported  into  North 
Carolina.  Cain  &  Ruea. 

C(EUR  DE  Lion — Foaled  1789.  By  Highflyer,  out  of  Dido,  sister  to 
Javelin  by  Eclipse,  grand  dam  by  Spectator,  g.  g.  d.  Blank,  out  of 
Diana.     Imported  into  Virginia  1800.  John  Hoomes. 

He  was  a  fashionable  stallion,  and  got  racers  in  a  high  form. 

Commodore — Foaled  1820.  By  Caleb  Quotem,  dam  Mary  Brown,  by 
Guilford,  v&c.  Imported  into  New  York  by  C.  H.  Williamson,  of 
Ontario  Co.,  in  1827.  C.  H.  Hall's  Notes. 

CoNSOL,  b.  h. — Foaled  1828. — By  Lottery,  dam  a  bay  mare  by  Cer- 
berus ;  her  dam  Merlin's  dam  by  Delpini ;  Tipple  Cider,  by  King 
Fergus,  Silvia  by  Young  Marske,  &c.,  «fec. 

CoNSTERXATiox — Foaled  1841.  By  Confederate  out  of  Curiosity;  Con- 
federate by  Comus  out  of  Maritornes,  Curiosity  by  Figaro  out  of 
a  "Waxy  mare.  A  horse  of  great  size  and  strength,  imported 
especially  to  improve  the  breed  of  ordinary  horses.       H.  W.  H. 

Contract,  ch.  c. — Foaled  1823.  By  Catton,  out  of  Helen,  by  Hamble- 
tonian,  out  of  Susan,  by  Overton,  g.  g.  d.  Drowsy,  by  Drone,  g.  g. 
g.  d.  Old  England  mare.     Imported  into  New  York. 

Wm.  Jackson. 

Cormorant — Foaled  1787.  By  Woodpecker,  out  of  Nettletop,  by 
Squirrel,  grand  dam  Indiana's  dam,  by  Bajazet,  g.  g.  d.  Regulus 
mare,  dam  of  Goldfinder.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

John  Hoomes. 

Coronet — Foaled  1828.  By  Catton,  dam  by  Paynator  out  of  Violet, 
Shark — Syphon. 

Crab,  Routh's  Crab — Foaled  1736.  By  Crab,  dam  by  Councillor, 
grand  dam  by  Coneyskins,  g,  g.  d.  Hutton  Arabian.  Imported  into 
Virginia  1746.  George  Haugiiton. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  finest  of  the  old  English  thoroughbreds. 
He  has  left  his  strain  abundantly,  and  still  telling  through  many 
generations.  H.  W.  H. 

Crawford — Said  to  be  bred  by  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  Cumberland 
Arabian,  Partner,  Snake,  Lyster  Turk.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

Robert  Rcffin. 
Not  in  the  Stud  Book,     It  is  a  suspicious  feature,  in  all  these 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  451 

questionable  pedigrees,  that  they  go  at  once,  or  after,  at  most,  two 
or  three  crosses,  into  oriental  blood.  H.  W.  H. 

Crawler — Foaled  1792.  By  Highflyer,  out  of  Harriet,  by  Matchem, 
grand  dam  Flora,  by  Regulus,  g.  g.  d.  by  Bartlett's  Childers, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Bay  Bolton,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Belgrade  Turk.  Imported  into 
Tennessee. 

Creeper — Foaled  1786.  By  Tandem,  out  of  dam  to  Crawler.  Tandem 
by  Syphon,  Regulus  mare.     Imported  into  New  York. 

Creole — Said  to  be  foaled  1740  or  1751.  By  Ancaster  Starling,  out 
of  Dapple's  dam.  She  an  Ancaster  mare,  her  dam  by  the  Damascus 
Arabian.     Refer  to  Heber's  Eng.  A.  Cal.  for  1654,  p.  177. 

Cub— Foaled  1739.  By  Old  Fox,  dam  Warlock  Galloway,  Curwin's 
Bay  Barb,  &c. 

Cynthius — Foaled  1799.  By  Acacia,  out  of  Yarico,  sister  to  Flora. 
Acacia  by  Turf,  out  of  Madonna  by  Herod,  Turf  by  Matchem,  dam 
to  Ancaster  Starling. 

Dabster — Said  to  be  imported  1741.  By  Hobgoblin,  dam  Spanker, 
grand  dam  by  Hautboy.  James  Haskin. 

Another  doubtful  pedigree.  Not  in  the  Stud  Book,  and  Haut- 
boy is  rather  a  younger  stallion  than  Spanker,  though  this  is  not 
conclusive.  H.  W.  H. 

Daghee — Said  to  be  got  by  Muley,  dam  by  Arabian  Sheik.  No  date  ia 
given,  and  neither  the  horse  nor  his  dam  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Stud  Book. 

Dancing  Master — Foaled  1787.  By  Woodpecker,  dam  Madcap,  by 
Snap,  grand  dam  Miss  Meredith.     Imported  into  South  Carolina. 

Dare  Devil — Foaled  1787.  He  was  by  Magnet,  out  of  Hebe,  by  Crys- 
olite,  out  of  Proserpine,  sister  to  Eclipse.  Imported  into  Virginia 
in  1795. 

Darlington — Foaled  1787.  Bred  by  Mr.  Wetherston.  Got  by  Clo- 
thier, dam  by  Highflyer,  grand  dam  by  Little  John,  g.  g.  d.  by 
Snake.     Imported  into  Virginia,  1792.  John  Hoomes. 

Not  in  Weatherby ;  and  there  is  no  Highflyer  mare  recorded, 
whose  dam  was  got  by  Little  John.  H.  W.  H. 

David — Foaled  1756.  Bred  by  Lord  Gower.  By  the  Gower  Stallion, 
out  of  Foxcub  mare,  daughter  of  Young  True  Blue  mare.  The 
Gower  Stallion  was  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  Whitefoot  mare. 
Imported  into  Virginia  1763. 


452 


THE    HORSE. 


Be  Bash— Foaled  1792.  By  King  Fergus,  out  of  a  Highflyer  mare, 
grand  dam  Madcap,  by  Snap,  out  of  Miss  Meredith.  Imported 
into  Massachusetts.  C.  H.  Hall's  Notes. 

Denizen — Foaled  1836.  By  Actaeon,  dam  Design  by  Tramp,  out  of 
Defiance.     Bred  and  imported  by  Mr.  Boardman  of  Alabama. 

Derby — Foaled  1831.  By  Peter  Lely,  out  of  Urganda,  formerly  Lady 
Eleanor,  by  Milo,  grand  dam  by  Sorcerer,  out  of  Twins.  Imported 
into  Massachusetts  by  R.  D.  Shepherd. 

DiAMOND^ — Said  to  be  by  Hautboy,  son  of  Old  Fox. 

Alex.  Spotswood. 

No  date  is  given ;  no  mare's  name,  and  nothing  is  to  be  found 
concerning  the  horse  in  the  Stud  Book.     He  is  very  apocryphal. 

H.  W.  H. 

DiOMED— Foaled  1777.  By  Florizel,  out  of  dr.  to  Spectator,  sister  to 
Juno.     Imported  into  Virginia  in  1798,  when  22  years  old. 

J.    HoOMES. 

One  of  the  very  best  horses  ever  imported,  and  who  has  told  the 
longest  tale  on  American  stock.  H.  W.  H. 

"  Sire,  in  America,  of  Sir  Archie,  Duroc,  Florizel,  Dinwiddle, 
Gracchus,  and  Hampton,  and  many  other  first-rate  runners,  and 
themselves  sires  of  runners.  Indeed,  his  get  were  among  the  best 
horses  ever  raised  in  the  United  States,  being  large  and  powerful." 
— MS.  note  to  Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  by  the  late 

C.  H.  Hall. 
Dion — Foaled  1795.     By  Spadille,  dam  Faith,  by  Pacolet,  grand  dam 
Atalauta,  by  Matchem,  g.  g.  d.  Lass   of  the  Mill,  by  Oroonoko. 
Imported  into  Virginia  1801.  John  Hoomes. 

DoNCASTER — Foaled  1834.  By  Longwaist,  dam  by  Muley,  grand  dam 
Lady  Ern  by  Stamford,  out  of  sister  to  Repeater  by  Trumpator — 
Demirep  by  Highflyer,  &c.     Imported  in  1835. 

Don  John — Foaled  1835.  By  Tramp  or  Waverley,  out  of  Sharpsets' 
dam  by  Comus,  grand  dam  Marciana  by  Stamford,  out  of  Maria  by 
Coriander.     Imported  by  Dr.  Merritt  of  Virginia. 

Don  John  won  the  Doncaster  St.  Legcr  in  1838.     H.  W.  H. 

Don  Quixotte — Foaled  1784.  By  Eclipse,  out  of  Grecian  Princess,  by 
Williams'  Forrester,  grand  dam  by  Coalition  colt,  son  of  the  Godol- 
phin,  g.  g.  d.  by  Buzzard,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Charming  Molly,  by  Second, 
Imported  into  Virginia. 


IMPORTED    STAXLIONS.  463 

Dormouse — Foaled  1753.  By  Dormouse,  out  of  Diana,  by  Whitefoot. 
Bred  by  Lord  Chedwortli. 

Dottrel — Said  to  be  foaled  1757.  By  Changeling,  dam  by  a  son  of 
Wynn's  Arabian,  son  of  Lonsdale's  Arabian,  grand  dam  Black 
Arabian,  g.  g.  d.  Curwen's  Bay  Barb,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Burton  Barb  mare. 

P.  A.  Lee. 
Not  in  the  Stud  Book — very  suspicious.     He  goes  to  pure  barb 
or  oriental  blood  in  three  generations,  while  it  generally  requires 
at  least  nine  or  ten  to  reach  it.  H.  W.  H. 

Dove — Said  to  be  imported  into  Maryland  in  1791  or  1762.  By  Young 
Cade,  dam  by  Teazer,  grand  dam  by  G-ardiner.     Thomas  Goode. 

Not  in  Weatherby.  Gardiner  was  not  got  till  1787,  unless 
there  was  one,  not  named  in  Stud  Book. 

Dragon — Foaled  1787.  By  Woodpecker,  out  of  Juno,  by  Spectator. 
Imported  into  Virginia.  John  Hoomes. 

Dragon  produced  good  stock.  The  dam  of  Sally  Walker  was 
by  him.  MS.  note  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

Driver — Foaled  1784.  Said  to  be  by  Lord  Egremont's  Driver,  dam 
by  Dorimant,  grand  dam  Muse,  by  King  Herod,  g.  g.  d.  by  Crab, 
out  of  Miss  Meredith.  Wm.  Thornton. 

Lord  Egremont's  Driver,  by  Trentham,  was  not  himself  foaled 
until  1783,  and  Muse,  the  grand  dam  of  this  Driver,  never  bore  a 
filly  to  Dorimant  until  1788.  In  other  words,  this  horse's  sire  was 
begot  one  year  before  his  son,  and  his  dam  two  years  afterward. 
A  Dorimant  bay  filly  out  of  Muse,  foaled  in  1788,  is  said  to  have 
been  sent  to  America.  MS.  S.  B. 

Drone — Foaled  1778.  By  Herod,  out  of  Lily,  by  Blank,  out  of  Peggy 
by  Cade. 

This  horse  is  not  included  among  Skinner's  list  of  imported 
horses,  but  he  is  marked  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  drowned  on 
his  passage  to  America,  to  which  I  find  the  following  note  by  the 
late  Mr.  C.  H.  Hall  :  "  A  mistake  Drone  arrived  safely,  and 
covered  in  Litchfield,  Conn.,  and  in  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.,  but 
no  blood  mares  were  put  to  him." 

Druid— Foaled  1790.  By  Pot8os,  out  of  Maid  of  the  Oaks,  by  Herod, 
grand  dam  Rarity,  by  Matchem,  g.  g.  d.  Snapdragon,  by  Snap, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Regulus.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

John  Hoomes. 


+54 


THE    HORSE. 


DuNGANNON — Foaled  1793.  Bred  by  0.  Kelly.  By  Dungannon,  out 
of  Miss  Spindleshanks,  by  Oscar,  grand  dam  Starling,  g.  g.  d.  Go- 
dolphin  Arabian,  &c.,  &c.     Imported  into  Virginia  in  1799. 

This  is  the  true  pedigree  of  a  Dungannon  by  old  Dungannon, 
bred  by  0.  Kelly  in  1793.  See  Stud  Book,  vol.  i.,  p.  200.  There 
is  no  such  horse  as  the  Dungannon  as  given  on  Col.  Tayloe's  au- 
thority, dam  by  Conductor,  grand  dam  Flirt  by  Squirrel. 

Eagle — Foaled  1796.  Bred  by  Sir  F.  Standish.  By  Volunteer,  out 
of  Highflyer  mare,  grand  dam  by  Engineer,  g.  g.  d.  by  Cade,  g.  g. 
g.  d.  Lass  of  the  Mill.     Imported  into  Virginia  1811. 

Wm.  Bell. 
MS.  note  to  Weatherby : — "  Eagle  also  came   to  Virginia,  but 
his  colts  were  not  very  fine."  C.  H.  Hall. 

"  His  colts  were  speedy,  but  had  no  bottom." 

D.    C.    COLDEN. 

Eastham — Foaled  1818.  By  Sir  Oliver,  dam  Cowslip  by  Alexander, 
grand  dam  by  Anvil,  g.  g.  d.  Virago  by  Snap. 

MS.  note  by  C.   H.  Hall. 

Eclipse — Foaled  1778.  Bred  by  Sir  John  Shelly.  By  Eclipse,  out 
of  Phoebe,  by  Regulus,  grand  dam  by  Collingham,  g.  g.  d.  by 
Snake,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Bald  Galloway,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Lord  Carlisle's 
Turk.     Imported  into  Maryland.  Mr.  Bell. 

Eclipse — No  date  given.  By  Bright's  Partner,  Bloody  Buttocks,  Grey- 
hound, Makeless,  Brimmer,  Place's  White  Turk,  Dodsworth.  Im- 
ported into  Virginia.  Wm.   Harris. 

Not  in  the  Stud  Book,  but  believed  to  be  correct ;  probably 
named  after  his  arrival  in  America.  H.  W.   H. 

Eclipse — No  date  given.  By  Eclipse,  out  of  Amaryllis,  by  Adolphus, 
grand  dam  by  Baboon,  g.  g.  d.  Traveller,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Snake.  Im- 
ported into  Maryland.  Wm.  Newburn. 

This  pedigree  is  wrong  in  any  event.  Amaryllis  was  by  Adol- 
phus, dam  by  Cub,  out  of  a  la  Grecque's  dam.  She  was  foaled  in 
1768.  Her  stock  is  not  recorded  in  Weatherby.  Stud  Book, 
vol.  i.,  p.  507.  H.  W.  H. 

Emancipation — Foaled  1827.  By  Whisker,  dam  by  Ardrossan,  grand 
dam  Eliza  by  Whiteworth — Spadille — Silvia  by  Young  Marske. 

Emilius  Colt,  b.  c. — Foaled  1836.  Out  of  Fleur-de-lis  by  Bourbon, 
her  dam  Lady  Rachel  by  Stamford,  out  of  Young  Rachel  by  Vol- 
unteer ,  Rachel  by  Highflyer.  Col.  W.  Hampton,  S.  G. 


IMPOliTKD    STALLIONS.  465 

Emilius  Colt,  br.  c. — Foaled  1836.  Out  of  Young  Mouse,  the  dam  of 
Rat  Trap  by  Godolphin,  Mouse  by  Sir  David,  her  dam  Louisa  by 
Ormond,  Orville's  dam.  R.  F.  Stockton,  N.  J. 

Emilius  Colt,  ch.  c. — Foaled  1838.     Out  of  Polly  Hopkins. 

R.  C.  Stevens,  N.J. 

Emu — Foaled  1832.  By  Picton,  out  of  Cuirass,  by  Oiseau,  out  of  Cas- 
tanea.     Cuirass  was  an  Irish  mare,  bred  by  Lord  Sligo,  in  1823. 

Englishman — Foaled  1812.  .  Bred  by  Mr.  W.  Bell,  of  Virginia ;  im- 
ported in  his  dam.  By  Eagle,  also  imported,  dam  by  Pot8os, 
grand  dam  by  Pegasus,  g.  g.  d.  Smallbones,  by  Justice. 

Walter  Bell. 
This  PotSos  mare  is  not  in  the  Stud  Book,  but  the  pedigree  is 
probably  correct. 

Envoy — Foaled  1827.     By  Comus,  out  of  Aline,  by  Woful. 

Escape,  called  also  "  Horns." — Foaled  1798.  By  Precipitate,  Wood- 
pecker mare,  g.  d.  bn.  Sweetbriar,  g.  g.  d.  Buzzard's  dam. 

John  Hoomes. 

EsPERSYKES,  br.  c. — Foaled  1837.  By  Belshazzar,  dam  by  Capsicum, 
grand  dam  Aclam  Lass  by  Prime  Minister,  Young  Harriet  by 
Camillus,  Harriet  by  Precipitate,  Young  Rachel  by  Volunteer. 

New  Orleans,  La. 

Eugenius — Foaled  1770.  By  Chrysolite,  dam  Mixbury,  by  Regulus 
8d.,  Little  Bowes,  brother  to  Mixbury,  Hutton's  Barb,  Byerly 
Turk.     Bred  by  the  Duke  of  Ancaster. 

Expedition,  or  Ballinamuck — Foaled  1795.  By  Pegasus,  out  of  Ac- 
tive by  Woodpecker,  Laura  by  Whistle  Jacket,  Pretty  Polly  by 
Starling;  Pegasus  was  by  Eclipse,  out  of  Bosphorus,  sister  to 
Grrecian  Princess.     Imported  into  New  York  1801. 

Expedition  was  imported  into  New  York  by  Captain  Willis, 
and  stood  on  Long  Island  and  in  New  Jersey.  He  was  the  sire 
of  many  speedy  horses,  but  his  get  were  rather  undersized.  He 
was  the  sire  of  Expedition,  Modesty,  &c. 

MS.  note  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

Express — Foaled  1785.  By  Postmaster,  out  of  Syphon  mare,  dam  by 
Matchem,  grand  dam  by  Snipe,  g.  g.  d.  Regulus,  out  of  Lady  Thigh. 
Postmaster  by  Herod,  out  of  a  Snap  mare. 


456  THE    HOKSE. 

ExTON — Foaled  1785.  By  Highflyer,  out  of  lo  by  Spectator,  her  dam 
by  Blank  out  of  Diana. 

Turned  out  of  no  account,  for  want,  perhaps,  of  encouragement. 

H.  W.  H. 

Fairfax  Roan,  or  Strawberry — Foaled  1764.  By  Adolphus,  dam 
by  Tartar,  brother  of  Partner,  grand  dam  by  Midge,  son  of  Snake, 
g.  g.  d.  Hip.     Imported  into  Virginia  by  Lord  Fairfax. 

Fearnought — Foaled  1755.  By  Regulus,  out  of  Silvertail,  by  White- 
nose,  Rattle,  Parley  Arabian,  old  Childers  mare,  by  Grresley's  Bay 
Arabian,  out  of  Mr.  Coole's  Vixen,  by  Helmsley  Turk,  Dodsworth's 
dam.     Imported  into  Virginia  1764. 

This  was  the  most  distinguished  horse  of  all  the  early  importa- 
tions, and  left  the  most  decided  mark  on  the  American  race-horse, 
prior  to  the  days  of  Sir  Archy.  He  was  imported  by  CoL  John 
Baylor,  of  Virginia ;  and  it  is  curious,  in  these  days  of  enormous 
prices,  to  learn  that  his  cost,  on  lauding,  including  freight,  insurance, 
provender,  and  grooming,  amounted  to  only  £289  5s.  6d.  sterling. 

Among  other  capital  stallions  and  racers  he  got  the  following; 
Nonpareil,  out  of  a  Janus  mare ;  Nimrod,  out  of  a  Partner ; 
America,  out  of  a  Jolly  Roger ;  Regulus,  out  of  imported  Jenny 
Dismal ;  Godolphin,  full  brother  to  Regulus ;  Shakspere,  out  of 
an  imported  Cub  mare ;  Gallant,  out  of  an  imported  Shakspere 
mare ;  Apollo,  out  of  a  CuUen  Arabian  mare  ;  Harris's  Eclipse, 
out  of  Baylor's  imported  Shakspei-e  mare ;  Laurel,  out  of  a  Fear- 
nought mare ;  Matchless,  out  of  a  Sober  John  ;  King  Herod,  out 
of  an  Othello  ;  Whyuot  out  of  an  Othello  ;  Dandridge's  Fearnought, 
dam  unknown ;  Symmes'  Wildair,  his  best  son,  out  of  a  Jolly 
Roger  mare.     He  died  in  1776,  aged  21  years. 

Symmes'  Wildair  got — Commutation,  out  of  a  Yorick  mare ; 
Highflyer,  out  of  a  Yorick  mare  ;  Chanticleer,  out  of  a  Pantaloon 
mare. 

Chanticleer,  the  best  son  of  Symmes'  Wildair,  got — Magog  out 
of  Carilla,  by  Symmes'  Wildair,  his  half-fister  ;  Prestley,  full  sister 
to  Magog,  dam  of  Wilkes'  Madison;   Cornelia,  dam  of  Gracchus. 

Showing  that  he  was  not  only  a  getter  of  racers,  but  that  his 
stock  were  racer-getters  through  several  generations. 

Fallower — Foaled  in  1761,  or  1763.  By  Blank,  dam  by  Partner,  g.  d. 
by  Bloody  Buttocks,  Greyhound,  Makeless,  up  to  Dodsworth  and 
Layton  Barb  mare.  Mr.  Fenwicke  imported  this  horse  into  Caro- 
lina, in  1766.     Milliken's  Turf  History  of  South  Carolina. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.        ■  457 

This  is  a  clearly  traced  pedigree,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  this 
is  m  fact  the  horse — and  not  the  Fellow,  next  on  the  list,  whose 
importation  is  questionable — who  has  been  miscalled  Fallow,  a  dray- 
horse,  the  g.  g.  grandsire  of  Timoleon. 

For  what  purpose  so  absurd  and  unmeaning  a  name  as  "  Fal- 
lower "  could  be  given  to  a  race-horse  is  not  conceivable ;  but 
strangely  stupid  names  seem  to  have  been  the  fashion  in  America 
at  that  time.     He  was  named  after  importation.  H.  W.  H, 

Fellow — Foaled  1757.  By  Cade,  dam  by  Goliah,  grand  dam  by  Part- 
ner, g.  g.  d.  by  Wilkinson's  Turk,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Cupid,  he  by  the 
Somerset  Arabian  out  of  Bald  Charlotte.  Bred  by  Mr.  Hudson, 
1757. 

I  am  induced  to  insert  this  celebrated  horse,  in  consequence  of 
a  note  by  Mr.  William  Williams,  of  Tennessee,  on  the  parentage 
of  Timoleon,  the  best  son  of  Sir  Archy,  the  sire  of  Boston,  and 
progenitor  of  half  the  best  horses  in  the  country  of  the  present  day. 

Timoleon's  maternal  ancestry  runs  thus; — dam  by  imported 
Saltram,  grand  dam  by  Symmes'  Wildair,  g.  g.  d.  dam  by  Fallow, 
&c.,  &e. 

Now  Fallow  is  said  to  have  been  a  cart-stallion  imported  into 
North  Carolina.  It  is,  of  course,  preposterous  to  tell  any  man,  who 
knows  any  thing  about  breeding  or  blood,  that  such  a  horse  him- 
self, and  the  getter  of  such  horses  as  Timoleon,  could  possibly  be 
the  great-grandson  of  a  common  cold-blooded  cart-horse ;  or  that 
any  breeder,  not  a  subject  for  the  lunatic  asylum,  would  have  put 
a  filly  by  Driver  and  her  dam  by  Vampire  to  a  cart-horse. 

Mr.  Williams  informs  me,  that  it  was  in  his  younger  days  ac- 
credited that  Fellow  by  Cade,  as  above,  was  imported  previous  to 
the  Revolution  into  America,  and  that  he  confidently  believes  that 
be,  and  not  the  nondescript  Fallow,  is  the  great  grandsire  of  Timo- 
leon. 

I  give  the  tradition  for  what  it  is  worth.  Mr.  Williams  is 
understood  not  to  vouch  for  the  relation  as  of  his  own  knowledge  ; 
but  his  opinion  is  entitled  to  the  highest  consideration ;  and  this 
hypothesis  would  settle  a  serious  difficulty,  did  I  not  consider  it 
settled  by  the  insertion  of  the  horse  above-named  into  the  list  of 
imported  stallions. 

For  that  the  progeny  of  a  cart-horse  should  continue  to  prove, 
generation  after  generation,  the  best  performers  both  for  speed  and 
endm-ance,  is  an  unheard-of  anomaly  on  the  Turf;  and  may,  from 


458  THE   HOftSE. 

data  founded  on  unquestionable  experience,  be  pronounced  impos- 
sible. H.  W.  H. 
Felt — Foaled  1826.     By  Langar,  dam  Steam  by  Waxy  Pope,  grand- 
dam  Miss  Stavely  by  Shuttle. 

Figaro — Foaled  1831.  By  Figaro,  dam  by  Catton.  Castrated.  Im- 
ported into  Massachusetts  in  1764. 

Figure — Foaled  1757.  Said  to  be  by  Old  Figure,  out  of  Marianne,  by 
Croft's  Partner,  grand  dam  the  Bald  Galloway,  and  bred  by  the 
Duke  of  Hamilton.     Imported  into  Maryland  1765. 

But  there  is  no  such  horse  in  Weatherby  as  Figure  by  Old 
Figure.  Though  there  is  a  Figure  bred  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
in  1747,  by  Standard,  out  of  the  Beaufort  Arabian  mare.  Nor  is 
there  any  Marianne  by  Croft's  Partner.  H.  W.  H. 

Figure — Foaled  1747.  By  Standard,  dam  a  Beaufort  Arabian  mare, 
Lord  Brooke's  Arabian,  Brimmer,  Darley's  Arabian,  &c.,  &c. 

Firebrand — Foaled  1802.  By  Braggart,  out  of  Fanny,  sister  to  King 
Fergus.     Imported  into  North  Carolina. 

Firetail' — Foaled  1795.  By  Phenomenon,  out  of  Columbine,  by  Es- 
persykes,  out  of  Babraham  Blank ;  Espersykes  was  by  Matchem, 
out  of  the  Gower  Stallion  mare.  Imported  into  North  Carolina 
1801. 

Flag  of  Truce  is  described  in  Millikon's  Turf  History  of 
South  Carolina  as  a  brown  horse  by  Sober  John,  out  of  Creeping 
Kate,  who  ran  well  prior  to  1767.  But  as  Creeping  Kate  was  not 
foaled  until  1765,  or  Sober  John  until  1791,  I  have  not  deemed  it 
proper  to  insert  him.  If  there  was  any  such  horse,  that  was  not 
his  pedigree.  H.  W.  H. 

Flatterer — Foaled  1830.  By  Muley,  dam  Clare,  by  Marmion,  grand 
dam  Harpalice  by  Gohanna,  g.  g.  d.  Amazon  by  Driver. 

Sent  to  the  United  States  in  1835.  Stood  in  Mr.  J.  L.  Ste- 
vens' stud  until  1836,  when  he  was  sold  to  Mr.  Corbin,  and  sent 
to  Alabama. 

Flexible,  b.  c. — Foaled  1822.  By  Whalebone,  dam  Themis  by  Sor- 
cerer, grand  dam  Hanna  by  Gohanna.     Imported  1836. 

Flimnap — Foaled  1765.  By  South,  dam  by  Cygnet,  grand  dam  Car- 
touch;  Young  Ebony  by  Childers,  &c.  Imported  into  South 
Carolina. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  459 

Florizel — No  date  given.  By  old  Florizel,  dam  by  Alfred,  grand  dam 
Fairy  Queen,  by  Young  Cade. 

Fairy  Queen  had  a  filly  to  Alfred  in  1778,  but  her  name  is  not 
given ;  and  neither  she,  nor  her  stock,  can  be  made  out. 

Fop,  g.  h. — Foaled  1832.  By  Stump,  dam  by  FitzJames,  grand  dam 
by  Windle,  g.  g.  d.  by  Anvil,  out  of  Virago  by  Snap. 

L.  I.  Polk,  Tenn. 

Forrester — No  date  given.     Said  to  be  by  Magog,  son  of  Matchem, 
dam  by  Barry's  Forrester.     Stood  in  Kentucky  1803. 
He  cannot  be  made  out. 

Frederick — Foaled  1810.  By  Selim,  out  of  Englishman's  dam,  Pot- 
8os  mare  by  Pegasus,  Highflyer,  Smallbones,  Justice.  Imported 
into  Virginia  in  1811. 

Friar — Foaled  1759,  By  South,  out  of  an  own  sister  to  Sir  J.  Low- 
ther's  Babraham,  by  Old  Babraham,  g.  d.  by  Golden  Ball,  g.  g.  d. 
Bushy  Molly  by  Hampton  Court  Childers,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Lord  Hali- 
fax's Bushy  Molly,  Lytton  Arabian,  Farmer  mare,  Chillaby  Barb, 
Sir  W.  Bamsden's  mare,  Byerly  Turk  Spanker.  Imported  into 
Carolina  at  six  years  old,  and  covered,  from  1767  to  1774  in  that 
State. — Millikeu's  Turf  History  of  South  Carolina. 

But  Mr.  Miliken  errs  in  the  date  of  his  birth,  which  he  gives 
as  1760.  H.  W.  H. 

Fylde — Foaled   1824.      By  Antonio,   out   of  Fadladinada,  Sir  Peter 
Teazle,  out  of  Fanny  by  Diomed. 
Fylde  got  crippled  in  landing. 

Gabriel — Foaled  1790.  Dorimant,  Highflyer,  Old  Snap,  Shepherd's 
Crab,  Miss  Meredith.  Imported  by  Col.  Tayloe  into  Virginia  in 
1799. 

This  is  one  of  the  purest  bred  and  most  undeniable  blood-horses 
ever  imported  into  America,  and  got  good  stock ;  among  others, 
Oscar,  out  of  a  Medley  mare. 

Genius — Foaled  1753.  By  Babraham,  dam  Aura  by  the  Stamford 
Turk,  brother  to  Conqueror. 

Gift — Foaled  1768.  By  Cadormus,  dam  by  Old  Cub,  dam  also  to  Col. 
Delancy's  Cub  mare.  Second,  Starling,  «fcc. 

Glencoe — Foaled  1831.  By  Sultan,  out  of  Trampoline,  by  Tramp, 
Web  by  Waxy,  Penelope  by  Trumpator,  Prunella  by  Highflyer. 


460  THE    HORSE. 

Gouty — Foaled  1796.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  Yellow  mare,  by  Tandem, 
out  of  Perdita,  by  Herod,  &c.     Imported  1806. 

Granbt — Foaled  1759.     By  Blank,  Old  Crab,  Cyprus  Arabian. 

Grecian — Foaled  1821.  Brother  to  Alasco,  by  Clavileno,  son  of  Sor- 
cerer, out  of  Pioneer  mare,  grand  dam  by  Constitution.  Imported 
into  New  York,  in  1828,  by  Mr.  G.  Barclay. 

He  was  a  tall,  long-legged  horse.     MS.  Notes  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

Grey  Highlander — Foaled  1787.  By  Bourdeaux,  Teetotum,  Lady 
Bolingbroke,  by  Squirrel.  Imported  by  an  English  gentleman, 
Mr.  Harriot,  of  Newark,  N.  J.,  who  also  imported  b.  c.  by  Pay- 
master, out  of  Le  Sang  mare,  dam  by  Rib,  out  of  the  grand-dam 
of  Eclipse.  MS.  note  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

Greyhound— Foaled  1796.     By  Sweetbriar,  Miss  Green,  by  Highflyer. 
Hambleton — Foaled   1791.      By   Duuganuon,   Snap,   Blank,   Starling, 
Miss  Meynal,  by  Partner,  &c. 

Hamilton — Foaled  1793.  Bay  colt  by  Highflyer,  Eclipse,  Young 
Cade,  &c.     Bred  by  Lord  Grosvenor. 

Hector — Foaled  1745.     Lath,  Childers,  Barb,  Curwen's  Bay  Barb,  &c. 

Hero — Foaled  1747.  Blank,  Godolphin  Arabian,  &c. — English  Racing 
Calendar  for  1762.     This  horse  is  not  in  Weatherbj. 

Hedgeford — Foaled  1826.  By  Filho  da  Puta,  out  of  Miss  Cragie,  by 
Orville,  the  Marchioness  by  Lurcher,  &e.,  &c. 

This  horse  was  imported,  with  Autocrat,  into  New  York,  in 
1832,  by  Mr.  W.  Jackson.  Both  of  these  horses  got  some  winners, 
but  cannot  be  said  to  have  made  any  telling  mark  on  American 
stock. 

Herod — Foaled  1792.  Imported  into  Va.,  by  Col.  Toome's  Young 
King  Herod,  Conductor,  &c.     Not  in  the  Stud  Book. 

Hark  Forward — Foaled  1840.  Own  brother  to  Harkaway.  Im- 
ported by  Judge  Porter  of  Louisiana  in  1841  by  Economist,  dam 
by  Naboelish — g.  d.  Miss  Tooley  by  Teddy  the  Grinder,  g.  g.  dam 
Lady  Jane  by  Sir  Peter,  g.  g.  g.  dam  Paulina  by  Florizel,  g.  g.  g. 
g.  dam  Captive  by  Matchem,  &c. 

Economist  was  by  Whisker  out  of  Floranthe  by  Octavian,  out 
of  Caprice  by  Anvil.     Madcap  by  Eclipse  out  of  Delpini's  dam. 

Naboelish  by  Rugantino — by  Beuiugborough,  dam  by  Iligliflyer 
— out  of  Butterfly  by  Master  Bagot,  g.  dam  by  Bagot  out  of  Mother 
Brown. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  461 

Hibiscus — Named  after  he  came  to  America — ^b.  h.  Foaled  1834  or  '5. 
Bj  Sultan  dam  Duchess  of  York  by  Waxy, 

Highflyer,  br.  colt— Foaled  1782.  By  Highflyer  out  of  Angelica  by 
Snap.     Bred  by  Lord  Egremont. 

Hob  or  Nob — No  date  given.  A  bay  horse,  got  by  Babraham  or  Goliah, 
dam  unknown. — Edgar's  Stud  Book. 

It  does  not  appear  to  be  known  when,  by  whom,  or  whither,  he 
was  imported.     Altogether  very  doubtful.  H.  W.  H. 

Honest  John— Foaled  1794.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  Magnet,  Lesang, 
Rib  Mother  Weston. 

Hope — By  Volunteer,  imported  into  Pennsylvania.  Not  stated  whe- 
ther a  horse  or  mare,  and  to  be  found  neither  in  Edgar  nor  Wea- 
therby.     Very  doubtful.  H.  W.  H. 

Hugh  Lupus— Foaled  1836.  By  Priam,  dam  Her  Highness  by  Moses 
—Princess  Royal— Castrel— Queen  of  Diamonds,  &c.  Imported 
into  New-  Orleans. 

Humphry  Clinker— Foaled  1822.  By  Comus,  out  of  Clinkerina  by 
Clinker. 

Invalid— Foaled  1822.  By  Whisker,  dam  by  Hamiltouian,  grand  dam 
Susan,  out  of  Drowsy,  by  Drone,  &c. 

Jack  Andrews— Foaled  1794.  By  Joe  Andrews,  Highflyer,  Cardinal 
Pufi",  Tatler,  Snip,  Grodolphin  Arabian,  &c. 

Jack  or  Diamonds — Said  to  have  been  imported  by  Col.  Spotswood  of 
Virginia.  He  is  not  in  the  English  Stud  Book.  Said  to  be  by  the 
Cullen  Arabian.  Dam  by  the-Darley  Arabian,  grand  dam  by  the 
Byerly  Turk,  g.  g.  dam  by  the  Taffolet  Barb,  g.  g.  dam  Plaice's 
White  Turk,  natural  Barb  Mare. 

This  is  one  of  those  pedigrees  alluded  to  above  as  especially  sus- 
picious. We  here  find  five  generations  every  one  of  pure  Oriental 
blood,  in  the  first  instance.  I  hardly  believe  that  such  a  pedigree 
exists  in  the  world,  though  several  such,  or  nearly  such,  are  as- 
serted for  early  American  importations.  H.  W.  H. 

Jack  of  Diamonds  is  said  by  Edgar,  in  his  Stud  Book,  to 
have  left  good  stock  in  Virginia. 

Jack  the  Bachelor— Foaled  1753.  By  Blaze,  dam  by  Gallant,  Smil- 
ing Tom,  &c. 


462  THE    HORSE. 

Janus — Foaled  in  1746.  Imported  into  Va.,  about  1752.  Said  to  be 
by  old  Jauus,  son  of  the  Godolphin  Arab  out  of  the  Little  Hartley 
mare,  dam  by  Fox,  g.  dam  by  Bald  Galloway.  Not  in  the  Stud 
Book,  but  probably  genuine.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  sire  of  an 
immense  quantity  of  speedy,  short-distance  racers.  His  immediate 
descendants  could  not  stay  a  distance,  but  his  remote  posterity  are 
said  to  have  had  great  muscle  and  bottom,  and  his  blood  still  holds 
in  excellent  repute. 

Celer  was  justly  considered  the  best  son  of  old  Janus,  as  he 
propagated  a  stock  equal  in  every  quality  to  those  of  the  stock  be- 
gotten by  his  sire.  He  was  bred  by  Mr.  Mead  of  Virginia,  and 
foaled  in  1774,  died  in  1802,  aged  28  years. 

As  the  pedigree  on  his  dam's  side  is  not  generally  known,  I  will 
here  give  it.  The  dam  of  Celer  was  got  by  Imp.  horse  Aristotle 
by  the  Cullen  Arabian,  dam  by  Crab,  grand  dam  Godolphin  Arab 
out  of  White  Cheeks.  Mason's  Farrier. 

This,  however,  gives  but  a  very  small  part  of  Celer's  maternal 
pedigree,  and  fails  in  the  most  essential  part — the  maternal  line. 
Any  one  can  trace  Aristotle  in  the  English  Books  ;  but  how  to  learn 
the  grand  dam  of  Celer.  H.  W.  H. 

John  Bull — Foaled  1789.  By  Fortitude  out  of  Xantippe,  by  Eclipse 
out  of  Grecian  Princess. 

John  Bull — Foaled  in  1833.  By  Chateau  Margaux,  dam  by  Woful,  g. 
dam,  sister  to  Brandon,  by  Beningborough,  g.  g.  dam  Miss  Tomboy 
by  Highflyer,  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Shakspeare,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Barbara 
by  Snap,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Miss  Vernon  by  Cade,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g. 
dam  the  Widdrington  mare  by  Partner. 

The  dam  of  Chateau  Margaux,  was  Wasp  by  Gohanna,  grand 
dam  by  Highflyer. 

He  was  imported  in  1834,  when  one  year  old,  by  Capt.  Stockton, 
U.  S.  Navy.  He  covered  in  1838  and  '39  in  Maryland.  He 
proved  a  sure  foal  getter,  but  his  stook  have  not  done  much. 

Jolly  Roger,  alias  Roger  of  the  Valie — Foaled  1741.  By  Round- 
head, dam  by  Croft's  Partner,  g.  dam  by  Woodcock,  g.  g.  dam  by 
Croft's  Bay  Barb,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  Dicky  Pearson,  son  of  old 
Dodsworth,  Burton  Barb  Mare. 

One  of  the  very  best  early  importations.  His  blood  still  has 
its  mark  in  the  best  stock  of  the  present  day. 

Jonah — Foaled  in  1795.  Escape,  dam  by  Lavender  by  King  Herod,  g 
dam  by  Snap,  g.  dam  Cade  out  of  Madam  by  Bloody  Buttocks. 


IMPOKTED    STALLIONS.  •  463 

JoKDAN,  ch.  h. — Foaled  1833.     By  Langar,  dam  Matilda  by  Comus,  g. 
dam  Juliana — late   Lady  Thigh — by  Gohanna,  g.  g.   dam  Platina 
by  Mercury,  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Mercury,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Herod,  g. 
g-  g-  g-  g-  g-  dam  Young  Hag  by  Skim. 
Matilda  won  the  St.  Leger  in  1827. 

Julius  C^sar — Foaled  1757.    Young  Cade,  Snip,  Lonsdale  Arabian. 

Juniper — Foaled  1782.  Babraham,  out  of  Aura  by  Stamford  Turk, 
Childers,  &c. 

Junius — Foaled  1752.  Imported  into  Virginia  1759.  Starling  Crab, 
Monkey,  Curwen's  Bay  Barb,  Curwen's  Spot,  &c.,  &c. 

Justice — Foaled  in  1782.  By  Justice,  son  of  King  Herod,  out  of  Curi- 
osity. His  dam.  Miss  Timms,  by  Matchem.  grand  dam  Squirt 
mare,  g.  g.  d.  by  Mogul,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Camilla  by  Bay  Bolton,  Old 
Lady — Pullin's  Chestnut  Arabian — Roekwood — Bustler. 

Miss  Timms  was  own  sister  to  Pumpkin,  Ranthos,  Conundrum, 
Maiden,  &c. 

This  horse's  pedigree  is  given  wrongly  in  Edgar,  as  he  is  stated 
there  to  be  out  of  the  Squirt  mare,  who  was  his  grand  dam. 

He  was  imported  into  South  Carolina  by  Major  Butler,  and 
covered  many  years  at  Ashepoo  Bridge.  H.  W.  H. 

Justice — By  Regulus,  Sweepstakes  Oxford,  dam  Arabian.  Not  in  the 
Stud  Book,  very  doubtful.  H.  W.  H. 

Justice — Foaled  1759.  By  Blank,  out  of  Aura,  by  Stamford  Turk, 
O'Kelly.  Said  to  have  been  imported  by  Col.  Tayloe.  Foaled  in 
1794. 

Justice — By  Anvil  dam  by  Eclipse,  g.  dam  full  sister  to  Aurelius  by 
Blank,  &c.,  &c. 

More  than  doubtful,  there  were  two  horses  called  Aurelius, 
one  by  Herod  and  one  by  Eclipse ;  none,  on  record,  by  Blank. 

H.  W.  H. 

King  Hiram — Said  to  have  been  got  by  Clay  Hall,  son  of  Clay  Hall 
Marske,  dam  by  Rockingham  out  of  Yarico  by  Eclipse.  Cannot  be 
made  out  in  the  Stud  Book.  H.  W.  H. 

King  William — Foaled  in  1777.  Imported  into  Hartford,  Conn.,  by 
Wm.  Skinner.  By  King  Herod,  Madcap  by  Snap.  Miss  Meredith 
by  old  Cade.  This  horse  had  not  the  advantage  of  thoroughbred 
mares,  but  he  got  good  stock,  and  his  blood  is  still  visible  among 
the  horses  of  Connecticut.     He  was  very  handsome  with  fine  action. 

MS.  Notes  by  C.  H.  H. 


464  THE    HOESE. 

King  William — Foaled  1781.  Imported  into  Va.,  1795.  By  Flori- 
zel  out  of  Milliner,  by  Matchem,  Cassandra  by  Blank,  Childers, 
Basto,  Curwen's  Barb,  &c. 

Knowsley — Foaled  in  1795.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  dam  Cupella  by 
Herod,  grand  dam  Miss  Cade  by  Regains,  Blackeyes  by  Crab, 
Matlock  Galloway.  Knowsley  stood  in  Virginia,  and  left  good 
stock.  MS.  Notes  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

KouLiKHAN — Imported  by  Col.  Tayloe  about  1775.  His  pedigree  was 
burned.  He  could  not  have  been  either  Lord  Lonsdale's — foaled  in 
1730,  nor  Lord  March's  foaled  in  1772.  He  is  also  said  to  have 
been  a  bay  horse  imported  about  1764  or  '65.  By  Pearson's  Part- 
ner, dam  by  Lord  Lonsdale's  Koulikhan,  grand  dam  by  Jigg,  g. 
g.  dam  by  Curwen's  Bay  Barb,  Curwen's  Spot,  Whitelegged 
Chestnut,  Lowther's  Barb  out  of  the  Vintner  Barb  mare.  But  there 
is  no  proof  whatever  of  this  pedigree. 

KoDLiKHAN — Foaled  in  1772.  Lord  March's.  By  the  Vernon  Arabian, 
out  of  Rosemary  by  Blossom,  Ancaster  Starling,  Grasshopper,  &c. 

Lancelot — Foaled  1837.  Bred  by  the  Marquis  of  Westminster,  by 
Camel,  dam  Banter,  grand  dam  Boadicea  by  Alexander,  g.  g.  dam 
Brunette  by  Amaranthus,  g.  g.  g.  dam  Mayfly  by  Matchem  out  of 
an  Ancaster  Star  mare.  Lancelot  won  the  Doncaster  St.  Leger  in 
1840. 

Langar  Colt — By  Langar  sire  of  Elis,  dam  Malvina  by  Oscar,  grand 
dam  Spotless  dam  of  Lamplighter.     Imported  1839. 

Lanqford,  bh.  h. — Foaled  1853.  By  Starch,  out  of  Peri,  the  dam  of 
Sir  Hercules,  by  Wanderer,  her  dam  Thalestris  by  Alexander, 
Rival  by  Sir  Peter,  Hornet  by  Drone,  Manilla  by  Godolphin. 

R.  F.  Stockton,  N.  J. 

Lap  Dog — Foaled  1823.  By  Whalebone,  dam  by  Canopus,  grand  dam 
by  Young  Woodpecker.  Lap  Dog  won  the  Derby  in  1826.  Im- 
ported 1836. 

Lath— Foaled  1763.  Imported  in  1768,  by  Col.  Delancy.  By  Shep- 
herd's Crab,  dam  by  Lath,  Childers,  Makeless  out  of  a  full  sister 
to  Honeycomb  Punch  by  the  Tafiblet  Barb,  out  of  a  Barb  mare. 

This  horse,  or  Wildair,  also  imported  by  the  same  Col.  Delancy, 
have  been  stated  to  be  the  origin  of  what  is  called  the  Morgan 
horse ;  but  this  is  more  than  doubtful.  H.  W.  H. 

Leopard — By  Liverpool,  dam  Sneaker  by  Camel,  grand  dam  by  Sooth- 
sayer out  of  Hare.     Imported  into  Canada  in  1847. 


I 


IMPOETEU    STALLIONS.  467 

Matchem — Foaled  1773.  Imported  into  South  Carolina.  By  Matehem, 
out  of  Lady,  by  Sweepstakes — Patriot — Old  Crab — Bay  Bolton — 
Curwen's  Bay  Barb,  &c. 

Matchless — Foaled  1754.  Imported  into  South  Carolina.  Godolphin 
Arabian,  dam  Soreheels,  grand  dam  the  dam  of  Hartley's  blind 
horse — Makeless — Royal  mare. 

Medley — Foaled  1776.  Imported  into  Vii-ginia.  By  Giracrack,  out 
of  Arminda,  by  Snap,  out  of  Miss  Cleveland,  by  Regulus,  out  of 
Midge,  by  a  son  of  Bay  Bolton — Bartlett's  Childers — Houeywood's 
Arabian,  dam  of  the  two  True  Blues. 

He  was  a  beautiful  gray  horse,  a  racer  in  a  high  form  himself, 
and  a  most  successful  stallion.  He  is  said  to  have  been  sold  for 
100,000  pounds  of  inspected  tobacco,  at  40  shillings  the  cwt.  "  His 
blood  to  this  day  is  deemed  among  the  best,  and  a  cross  with  the 
blood  of  Diomed,  Shark,  or  Bedford,  is  held  to  be  equal  to   any." 

MS.  Note,  by  C.  H.  Hail. 

He  got,  among  many  other  famous  racers,  Boxei*,  out  of  a  Fear- 
nought mare ;  Opernico,  out  of  a  Lindsay  Arabian ;  Quicksilver, 
out  of  a  Wildair  mare ;  Young  Medley,  out  of  a  Black  and  All 
Black  mare ;  Melzar,  out  of  a  Wildair  mare ;  Lamplighter,  out  of  a 
Lonsdale  mare;  Fitzmedley,  out  of  a  Dandridge  Fearnought  mare; 
Gimcrack,  out  of  an  Ariel  mare ;  Bellair,  out  of  a  Yorick  mare. 
Bellair  may  be  considered  his  best  son,  having  the  blood  of  Morton's 
Traveller,  through  Yorick,  Fearnought,  Partner,  and  ]Mark  An- 
thony ;  and  Col.  Tasker's  famous  mare  Selima  was  his  great  grand 
dam. — Mason's  Farrier,  page  306. 

Mendoza — Foaled  in  1778.  By  Javelin,  out  of  Pomona,  by  King  He- 
rod— Snap — Regulus — Hip — Large  Hartley  mare. 

Mendoza  was  the  sire  of  Dr.  Wm.  Butler's  famous  mare, 
Rosetta. 

Mercer — By  Emilius,  out  of  young  Mouse,  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian, 
&c. 

No  date  is  given  either  of  the  foaling  or  importation  of  this 
horse ;  and  the  English  Stud  Books  mention  no  Mouse,  by  the  Go- 
dolphin. H.  W.  H. 

Merman — Foaled  and  imported  1835.    By  Whalebone,  dam  by  Orville. 

Merryfield — Foaled  1808;  imported  into  Virginia  1816.  He  was  got 
by  Cockfighter,  out  of  Star  mare,  dam  by  Marske — Emma,  by 
Telemachus — A-la-Grecque,  by  Regulus. 


468  THE   HORSE. 

Merry  Pintle — Said  to  be  foaled  in  1752.  By  Old  England,  dam  by 
Old  Merry  Pintle — Skipjack — Hackwood. 

What  is  the  true  state  of  the  case  in  regard  to  this  horse,  if 
there  ever  were  such  a  horse,  is  not  now  discoverable  ;  but  the  whole 
of  this  pedigree  is  a  falsehood. 

Old  England  was  foaled  in  1741.  There  is  no  mention  of  any 
such  horse  as  Merry  Pintle,  either  old  or  young.  Skipjack,  who 
is  said  to  be  the  sire  of  Old  England's  grand  dam,  was  running  in 
1762,  nineteen  years  later  than  the  birth  of  his  great  grandson,  and 
of  two  Hackwoods  represented  as  the  same  mare's  great  grand- 
sire,  one  died  in  1781,  the  other  in  1782;  yet  we  are  gravely  told 
by  Edgar,  that  the  great  great  great  grandson  of  one  or  the  other 
of  them  was  imported  into  America  near  thirty  years  before  the 
birth  of  either  of  them.  H.  W.  H. 

Merry  Tom — Said  to  be  foaled  about  1758.  Regulus,  dam  by  Locust, 
gr.  dam  Flying  Childers,  &c.  &c.  He  ran  well  in  England  and 
Scotland  before  his  exportation. 

He  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Stud  Book.  Regulus  got  two 
colts  out  of  Locusta  by  Locust,  a  chestnut,  Cheshire  Dick,  in  1760, 
and  a  colt  without  name  or  color  given  in  1763,  but  Locusta's  dam 
was  Pamela  by  Orion.     Merry  Tom  is  mythical.  H.  W.  H. 

Messenger — Foaled  in  1778.  By  Mambrino,  dam  by  Turf,  g.  d.  sis- 
ter to  Figurante  by  Regulus,  Starling,  Fox,  Gipsey  by  Bay  Bolton, 
Newcastle  Turk,  Taffolet  Barb,  Plaice's  White  Turk,  Natural 
Barb  mare.     His  dam  was  foaled  in  1774. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  successful  stallions  ever  brought  into 
America.  He  was  grandsire  in  the  maternal  line  to  American 
Eclipse,  and  beside  giving  birth  to  a  long  strain  of  noble  racers, 
has  been  the  most  famous  progenitor  of  half-bred  stock  in  the 
country. 

His  dam  is  only  mentioned  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  being 
foaled  in  1774,  as  the  dam  of  Messenger,  with  no  farther  notice  of 
her  stock. 

There  seems  to  be  some  error,  however,  in  the  date  of  his  birth 
or  of  that  of  his  death,  or,  if  in  neither,  then  in  his  age.  Edgar 
states,  Stud  Book,  p.  47,  that  he  was  foaled  in  1788,  and  died  in 
1808,  aged  28  years — the  interval  being,  however,  only  20  years 
Mr.  Hall's  MS.  note  to  Messenger's  dam,  by  Turf,  out  of  Regulus 
mare,  runs  thus — 

"  Messenger  died  aged  26,  the  property  of  C.  W.  Van  Ranst 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  469 

of  New  York.  He  was  the  sire  of  many  runners  in  America. 
To  wit,  Potomac,  Miller's  Damsel,  Fair  Rachel,  Little  John,  Bright 
Phoebus,  Hopper  Boy,  Tippoo  Saib,  Empress,  Romp,  and  many 
other  first-rate  stallions  and  brood  mares.     He  died  in  1818." 

According  to  this,  he  must  have  been  foaled  in  1782,  or  if 
Edgar  be  correct,  in  1780.  H.  "W.  H. 

Meux— Foaled  1816.  By  Chorus,  out  of  Diana,  by  Killdevil,  gd.  by 
Pot8os,  g.  gd.  Maid  of  All  Work,  by  Highflyer. 

Mexican— Foaled  in  1775.  By  Old  Snap,  dam  Matchem— Middleton, 
by  Matchem — Miss  Middleton,  by  Regulus — Camille,  by  a  son  of 
Bay  Bolton — Bartlett's  Childers — Honeywood's  Arabian,  dam  of 
the  True  Blues. 

Moloch — By  Muley  Moloch,  dam  sister  to  Puss,  by  Teniers. 

Monarch — Imported  into  Virginia.  Said  to  be  by  Wentworth's  An- 
caster — Royal  Changeling — Bethell's  Arabian.  Not  in  Weatherby's 
Stud  Book. 

Monarch — Foaled  1834.  By  Priam,  out  of  Delpini,  by  Whisker — My 
Lady  by  Comus,  the  Colonel's  dam,  by  Delpini,  Tipple  Cider,  &c. 
He  was  imported  into  South  Carolina,  and  has  got  good  stock. 

Monkey — Foaled  in  1825.  By  the  Lonsdale  Bay  Arabian — Curwen's 
Bay  Barb — Byerly  Turk  Arabian  mare.  He  was  imported,  when 
22  years  old,  in  1747  ;  died  in  1754.  He  left  an  excellent  stock 
of  runners,  and  upwards  of  250  colts  were  produced  to  him. 

MoRDECAi — Foaled  in  1833.  By  Lottery,  out  of  Miss  Thomasina,  by 
Welbeck,  gd.  Thomasina,  by  Timothy,  g.  gd.  Violet,  by  Shark, 
g-  g-  gd-  Typhon,  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Charlotte,  by  Blank,  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd. 
by  Crab,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Dimple,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Bethel's 
Castaway,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  gd.  Whynot — Royal  mare. 

He  ran  well  in  England  ;  was  taken  off  the  Turf  in  his  fourth 
year.  He  was  trained  in  America,  and  won  cups  at  Franklin, 
Tennessee,  and  Hopkinsville,  Kentucky. 

MoRO — No  date  given  by  Moro.  He  a  son  of  Starling,  out  of  Brown 
Slipby — his  dam  by  Regulus,  g.  dam  by  Rib,  g.  g.  dam  by  Part- 
ner, g.  g.  g.  dam  by  Greyhound,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  by  the  Curwen 
Bay  Barb.  "  It  is  an  interesting  fact,"  says  Milliken,  in  his  His- 
tory of  the  South  Carolina  Turf,  "  that  the  agent  who  imported 
Moro  had  nearly  succeeded  in  importing  the  celebrated  Eclipse. 
He  had  looked  at  him  and  made  an  offer,  which,  not  coming  exactly 
up  to  the  terms  proposed  by  the  owner,  was  rejected.    A  few  days 


470  THE    HORSE. 

after,  the  owner  of  Eclipse  made  some  abatement  in  his  terms, 
which  would  have  been  acceded  to,  had  not  the  American  agent 
purchased  Moro  in  the  mean  time."  This  story  is  very  apocryphal. 
Eclipse  was  bred  by  Col.  O'Kelly,  who  had  always  immense  confi- 
dence in  him,  and  it  is  not  believed  that  he  ever  wished  to  sell.  It 
is  also  singular  that  no  Regulus  mare,  on  record,  is  out  of  a  Rib 
mare,  though  one  Rib  is  out  of  a  Regulus.  While  no  recorded 
mare,  either  by  Regulus  or  Rib,  ever  bore  a  foal  to  Moro. 

One  cannot  resist  the  evidence  that  fully  one  half  of  the  early 
Southern  pedigrees  are  forgeries.  H.  W.  H. 

MoRVEN — Foaled  1836.  Imported.  By  Rowton,  dam  Nanine,  by  Selim, 
&c.,  &c.,  &c. 

MoRWiCK  Ball — Foaled  1762.  Imported  into  Virginia.  By  Regulus — 
Walter  Hartley's  blood  horse,  &c.  This  horse  is  stated  in  White's 
History  of  the  British  Turf,  to  have  died  at  Mr.  Vever's,  who  bred 
him,  Januai-y  4,  1787,  aged  25. 

Mosco — Foaled  1746.     By  the  Cullen  Arabian,  dam  by  Croft's  Star- 
ling, gd.  Croft's  Partner,  g.  gd.  Makeless,  g.  g.  gd.  Brimmer,  g.  g. 
g.  gd.  Plaice's  White  Turk — Old  Dodsworth — Layton  Barb  mare. 
This  is  a  correct  pedigree.  H.  W.  H. 

Mouse  Tr.\p — He  ran  in  England  in  1777,  and  was  said  to  be  imported 
into  Virginia  by  Col.  Dawson  of  North  Carolina,  whose  family  have 
still  the  original  certificate  from  the  stud  groom  of  the  Duke  of 
Buccleugh,  who  bred  him.  By  Careless,  dam  by  Regulus,  grand 
dam  by  Liberty,  g.  g.  d.  Old  Cade.  He  has  been  confounded  with 
Jack  Rapp,  alias  Mouse  Trap,  foaled  in  1787,  but  cannot,  of  course, 
be  the  same. 

Mufti— Foaled  1783.  Imported  into  Va.  1801.  Fitz  Herod,  dam  by 
Infant,  grand  dam  by  Whittington  out  of  sister  to  Black  and  All 
Black.     By  Crab  out  of  Miss  Slamerkin. 

Nicholas — Foaled  1833.  Imported  into  Mass.  1834 — by  St.  Nicholas, 
out  of  Moss  Rose  by  Tramp,  out  of  Duchess  of  York's  dam  by 
Sa.ncho. 

NiMROD — Said  to  be  by  King  Fergus,  dam  by  Eclipse,  grand  dam  by  old 
Marske,  g.  g  dam  by  Fortitude,  g.  g.  g.  dam  old  Matcheni.  Phila- 
delphia, 1788. 

Not  in  the  Stud  Book.     A  queer  pedigree   by   Eclipse  out  of 
his  own  half  sister.  H.  W.  H. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  471 

NoN  Plus— Foaled  1824.  By  Catton,  dam  Miss  Garfortli  by  Walton, 
grand  dam  by  Hyacinthus.     Imported  to  S.  Carolina. 

North  Britain — Imported  into  Virginia.  By  Alcock's  Arabian.  Nor- 
thumberland Arabian,  Hartley's  Blind  horse.  Philadelphia,  1768. 
Not  in  the  Stud  Book.  But  there  is  a  North  Briton  by  Adol- 
phus  out  of  Lass  of  the  Mill  by  Oroonoko,  grand  dam  by  Traveller. 
Foaled  1764.  Probably  this  is  the  horse,  the  rather  as  his  half 
brother  North  Star  came  to  America  about  the  same  time. 

North  Star— Foaled  1768.  By  Matchem,  out  of  Lass  of  the  Mill, 
Oroonoko,  Traveller,  Miss  Makeless,  Grreyhound,  Croft's  Partner, 
Miss  Doe,  &c. 

Northumberland  alias  Irish  Grey — Said  to  have  been  bred  by  Lord 
Mazarine,  and  imported  into  America  together  with  his  sister  Lady 
Northumberland.  He  was  a  good  racer,  stood  in  Philadelphia  in 
1768.  By  old  Bustard,  dam  by  old  Crab,  grand  dam  by  old  Ba- 
braham. 

There  is  no  Crab  mare  noted,  dam  by  old  Babraham.  More- 
over Crab  was  an  older  stallion  than  Babraham.  Though  that  is 
not  conclusive  against  the  pedigree.  H.  W.  H. 

Oberon — Foaled  in  1805.     By  Oberon,  dam  by  Eanthos  out  of  Turner's 
Sweepstakes,  sister  to  old  Careless,  out  of  Silvertail  by  Whitenose. 
Not  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book.  H.  W.  H. 

Obscurity — Foaled  1779.  By  Eclipse,  dam  Careless,  grand  dan  Cul- 
len  Arabian.  North  Country  Diomed,  Harpur's  Turk,  Child's 
mare. 

Not  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  but  mentioned  as  bred  by 
Lord  Milford,  in  White's  History  of  the  British  Turf.     H.  W.  H. 

Onus — By  Camel,  sire  of  Touchstone,  dam  The  Etching  by  Rubens, 
grand  dam  by  Gohanna  out  of  sister  to  Chester  by  Sir  Petei*. 
Brought  to  Illinois  by  Col.  Oakley  of  Tazewell,  in  1840. 

Oroonoko — Foaled  1745.  By  old  Crab  out  of  Miss  Slamerkin,  by 
Young  True  Blue,  dam  by  Lord  Orford's  dam  Arabian,  D'Arcy 
Royal  mare.     Imported  into  South  Carolina. 

Oscar — Foaled  1795.  By  Saltram  out  of  Highflyer,  grand  dam  by 
Herod  out  of  Miss  Middleton.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

This  horse  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  celebrated  Ameri- 
can stock-getter  Oscar.  He  was  by  Gabriel,  dam  by  Medley,  bred 
by  Mr.  Tayloe. — MS.  correction  by  Mr.  C.  R.  Colden  to  MS.  note 
by  C.  H.  Ha  I.!.. 


472  THE   HORSE. 

Otuello  or  Black  and  All  Black — Foaled  1743.  By  Crab  out  of 
Miss  Slamerkin,  bred  by  Lord  Portmore.  Imported  iuto  Maryland 
from  Ireland  about  1767,  by  Governor  Sharp.  He  was  own  bro- 
ther to  Oroonoko. 

As  a  proof  how  incorrectly  pedigrees  were  kept  in  America, 
the  Maryland  Gazette  of  1756,  gives  his  pedigree  as  by  Crab,  dam 
by  Hampton  Court  Childers. — Edgar's  Stud  Book. 

Pacolet — Said  to  be  imported  by  Col.  Hopper,  of  Maryland.  By 
Sparke  out  of  Queen  Mab — also  imported — by  Musgrove's  Gray 
Arabian,  dam  by  Hampton  Court  Childers,  Harrison's  Arabian, 
Chestnut  Arabian  Leedes ;  her  dam  was  also  the  dam  of  Croft's 
Greyhound. 

This  is  on  the  strength  of  an  advertisement  of  1778,  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Goode's  certificate.  No  such  Pacolet  or  Queen  Mab  are  to 
be  found  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book. 

This  horse  had  however  a  very  great  reputation  as  a  stock-get- 
ter, and  his  blood  still  holds  its  own. 

Pam — Foaled  in  1757.  By  Kegulus,  Cade,  Sedbury,  Scarborough 
Colt,  Woodcock,  &c.  He  was  afterwards  called  Lord  Boling- 
broke's  Vatout.  He  was  imported  by  Mr.  Fenwicke  in  1764,  after 
having  run  well  in  England  in  1761,  '62  and  '63. — Miliken's  Turf 
History  of  S.  C. 

Pantaloon — Foaled  1778.  By  Herod  out  of  Nutcracker,  mare  by  Old 
Matchem,  her  dam  Miss  Starling  imported  into  Virginia. 

Partner — Moore's — By  Partner  out  of  Camilla,  sister  to  Starling,  by 
Bay  Bolton.     Imported  into  "Virginia  about  1766. 

Partner — By  Croft's  Partner,  Godolphin  Arabian,  Old  Fox,  Childers, 
Makeless,  Tafiblet  Barb,  Barb  mare,  bred  by  Richard  Crofts,  of 
Baby,  Yorkshire,  and  proved  by  his  certificate.  Not  in  the  Stud 
Book.     Probably  named  after  his  importation. 

Partner — By  the  Duke  of  Hamilton's  Figure,  Old  Figure,  Stand- 
ard, (fee,  dam  Brittania,  grand  dam  Queen  Mab,  &c. 

Partner — By  Imported  horse  Morton's  Traveller,  out  of  Col.  Tasker's 
.  Imp.  Selima,  by  the  Godolphin  Arabian,  got  previous  to  their  im- 
portation, and  probably  named  afterward.     Not  in  the  Stud  Book. 

Passenger — Foaled  1836.  By  Langar,  dam  My  Lady  by  Comus.  The 
Colonel's  dam  by  Delpini.  He  was  bred  by  Mr.  Corbin,  and 
brought  to  Virginia. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  475 

There  seems  to  be  some  doubt  about  this  horse.  Mr.  C.  H. 
Hall,  has  a  MS.  note  to  Prince  Ferdhiand,  afterward  Mr.  Bren- 
ton's  King  Bladad  hy  Fortunio,  out  of  Magnolia,  by  Marske,  which 
runs  thus — "  Is  this  not  the  bay  horse  imported  by  Gren.  Lyman  to 
Boston,  known  here  as  Prince  Frederick?     C.  H.  Hall." 

H.  W.  H. 

Punch — Imported  into  Penn.  1799.  By  Herod,  dam  by  Marske  out  of 
a  Cullen  Arabian  mare,  g.  g.  dam  Blackeyes  by  Regulus,  g.  g. 
g.  dam  Routh's  Blackeyes  by  Crab,  &c. 

Puzzle — Foaled  1831.  By  Reveller,  dam  by  Juniper,  Trimbush,  by 
Teddy  the  Grrinder,  Princess  by  Sir  Peter,  Dungannon,  Turf,  Herod, 
Golden  Grove  by  Blank,  Widrington  mare,  &g. 

Allen  J.  Davie,  N.  G. 

Rangek — No  date  given.  Said  to  be  a  bay  horse  by  Regulus,  dam  by 
Merry  Andrew,  grand  dam  Steady,  g.  g.  d.  Croft's  Partner,  Grey- 
hound, Makeless,  Counsellor,  Brimmer,  White  Turk. 

Not  in  the  Stud  Book,  and  no  dates  given,  rather  doubtful. 

H.  W.  H. 

Regulus — Foaled  in  1747.  By  Regulus,  dam  by  Partner,  g.  dam  Cupid, 
g.  g.  dam  Hautboy,  g.  g.  g.  dam  Bustler. 

There  is  an  error  in  this  pedigree  as  given  in  Edgar's  Stud 
Book,  p.  53,  where  it  is  said  his  dain  was  got  by  a  son  of  Smiling 
Ball.  He  was  half  brother  to  Bald  Partner.  His  dam  was  by 
Partner,  as  above,  her  first  colt,  Turn  about  Turning,  was  got  by  a 
son  of  Smiling  Ball,  as  was  also  her  second  Bald  Partner.  See 
Stud  Book,  Weatherby's,  Vol  I.  p.  100. 

Ranter — Said  to  be  foaled  1755.     By  Dimple,  son  of  Godolphin,  Arab 
horse,  grand  dam  by  Bloody  Buttocks.     Imported  in  1762. 
Not  in  Weatherby,  doubtful.  H.  W.  H. 

Remus — Got  by  the  imported  horse  Dove,  Spanker,  Flying  Childers, 
Betty  Leeds,  &c. 

This  pedigree  is  totally  absurd.  Flying  Childers  was  not  foaled 
until  1715,  and  was  also  Spanker's  great  grandson.  So  how,  in  the 
name  of  all  impossibilities,  could  Childers  have  got  a  mare  which 
bore  a  foal  to  Spanker.     The  thing  speaks  for  itself. 

Republican — Said  to  be  by  Wentworth's  Ancaster,  Old  Royal,  Change- 
ling, Bethel  Arabian.     No  date.     Not  in  Weatherby.     Doubtful. 

H.  W.  H. 


476  TnE   HORSE. 

Restless  —Foaled  1788.     By  Phenomenon,  dam  Duchess  by  Lesang. 
Reveller  Colt — Foaled  1836.     Out  of  Rachel,  by  Whalebone,  out  of 
Moses'  dam,  by  Gohanua.  R.  F.  Stockton,  N.  J. 

RiCHAKD — Foaled  1810.  By  Stamford,  dam  by  Worthy,  grand  dam  of 
Tiney  by  Sir  Peter. 

Riddlesworth — Foaled  1828.  Won  the  Riddlesworth  stakes  in  1831. 
By  Emilius,  out  of  Filagree,  by  Soothsayer  out  of  Web,  by  Waxy, 
out  of  Penelope,  dam  of  Whalebone,  Whisker,  Woful,  AVilful,  and 
Wire,  all  by  Waxy.     He  by  PotSos,  out  of  Maria,  by  Herod. 

He  was  sold  to  Germany  in  1832,  but  carried  back  to  England, 
and  covei-ed  one  season  in  1839.  In  the  autumn  of  1839  he  was 
brought  to  America,  where  he  has  done  himself  no  credit,  and  the 
stock  of  the  country  no  good,  his  get  having  only  won  15  races  of 
46  miles  all  told';  and  yet  there  is  no  better  blood  in  the  world 
either  for  speed  or  stoutness.  It  is  probable  that  his  stock  will 
train  up  in  future  generations.  H.  W.  H. 

Roan  Colt — Foaled  1802.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  dam  by  Mercury, 
grand  dam  Cythera  by  Herod,  g.  g.  dam  by  Blank,  &c. 

Robin  Redbreast — Foaled  1796.  Imported  into  Virginia  in  1804.  By 
Sir  Peter  Teazle,  dam  Wren  by  Woodpecker,  Sir  Peter's  dam,  &c. 

RnoDERicK  Dnx] — Said  to  be  imported  into  New  York.  Sir  Peter 
Teazle,  dam  by  Marske,  Matchem,  Tarquin,  Young  Belgrade,  Scar- 
borough Colt,  &c. 

Not  to  be  found  in  Weatherby.     No  date.     Very  questionable. 

H.  W.  H. 

Roman — Foaled  1815.  Imported  to  Mass.  1825,  by  Camillus  out  of 
Leon  Forte  by  Eagle,  grand  dam  Trumpator,  Crane  by  Highflyer, 
Middlesex  by  Snap,  Miss  Cleveland.  Imported  by  Mr.  Williams 
of  Northborough,  Mass.  C.  H.  H.\ll. 

Rotherham,  b.  c. — Foaled  1838.  By  Gray  Conqueror,  Camillus  out  of 
Urganda  by  Sorcerer,  dam  by  Mulatto,  grand  dam  by  Discount, 
Stamford,  Drone,  Young  Marske,  &c.     Imported  1839. 

New  Orleans,  La. 

Rosalio,  ch.  c. — Foaled  1836.  By  Vanish,  out  of  Rose  Leaf,  by 
Whisker,  out  of  Rosalba,  by  Milo.  Charleston,  S.  C 

Rowton — Foaled  in  1826.  By  Oiseau,  dam  Katherina  by  Woful,  grand 
dam  Landscape  by  Rubens,  g.  g.  d.  Iris  by  Brush,  out  of  a  Herod 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  47Y 

He  won  the  St.  Leger  in  1829.  Imported  to  the  United  States 
about  1835.  His  get  first  appeared  on  the  turf  in  1839,  and  in 
seven  years  he  produced  winners  of  52  races,  220  miles.  Since 
1846  none  of  his  stock  have  won.  He  is  believed  to  have  had  a 
good  opportunity  with  racers,  and  may  be  said  to  have  failed. 

H.  W.  H. 

BowTON  Colt,  ch. — ^Foaled  1836.  Out  of  Nanine  by  Selim,  her  dam 
Bizarre,  by  Peruvian,  out  of  Violante.       R.  F.  Stockton,  N.  J. 

EoTALiST — Foaled  1790.  Imported  into  Tennessee.  By  Old  Saltram, 
dam  Herod,  grand  dam  Carina  by  Marske,  g.  g.  dam  Blank,  g.  g.  g. 
dam  Driver,  Smiling  Tom,  &c. 

Ruby — Foaled  in  America  in  1836  ;  imported  in  the  mare's  belly.  By 
Emilius,  dam  Eliza  by  Rubens. 

Saint  G-eorCtE — Foaled  1789.  Imported  into  Va.  By  Highflyer,  sis- 
ter to  Soldier,  by  Eclipse  out  of  Miss  Spindleshanks  by  Omar, 
Starling  Godolphin. 

Saixt  Paul— Foaled  1789.  Imported  into  Ya.  1804.  By  Old  Sal- 
tram,  dam  Purity  by  Matchem.  Mr.  Betts'  famous  Squirt  mare 
Mogul,  Camilla  by  Bay  Bolton. 

St.  Paul  covered  in  Connecticut,  had  no  blood  mares,  and  left 
no  stock  of  note.     He  was  a  very  small  horse.  H.  W.  H. 

Saltram — Foaled  1780.  Imported  into  Va.  1800.  By  Eclipse  out  of 
Virago  by  Snap,  grand  dam  Regulus  out  of  a  sister  to  Black  and 
All  Black. 

Saltram  was  imported  into  Virginia,  and  his  stock  proved  good  ; 
but  he  left  few  colts  of  note,  from  whom  prime  racers  have  descended. 

MS.  Note,  C.  H.  Hall. 

Sampson — By  Tantrum,  Sampson,  Grodolphin  Arabian,  Flora  by  Regu- 
lus. Not  in  the  Stud  Book.  No  dates.  No  authentication.  Very 
doubtful.  H.  W.  H. 

SoouT — Foaled  in  1836.  By  St.  Nicholas,  dam  by  Blacklock  out  of 
Primette — Physician's  dam — by  Prime  Minister  out  of  Miss  Paul, 
by  Sir  Paul. 

ScTTHiAN — Foaled  1851.  By  Orlando — winner  of  the  Derby  in  1844 — 
out  of  Scythia  by  Hetman  Platoff,  grand  dam  The  Princess 
— winner  of  the  Oaks  in  1844 — by  Slane,  g.  g.  d.  sister  to  Cobweb, 
by  Phantom,  g.  g.  g.  dam  Filagree  by  Soothsayer,  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam 


478  THE   HORSE. 

Web,  by  Waxy,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  dam  Penelope  by  Trumpator — Pru- 
nella by  Highflyer,  Promise  by  Snap,  Julia  by  Blank — Spectator's 
dam  by  Partner,  Bonny  Lass  by  Bay  Bolton — Darley  Arabian — 
Byerly  Turk— Taffolet  Barb— Plaice's  White  Turk— Natural  Barb 
Mare. 

Sklim — Foaled  1780.  By  Bajazet,  dam  Miss  Thigh  by  Rib — Lady 
Thigh  by  partner — Bloody  Buttocks — Grreyhouud — Makeless — 
Brimmer,  &c. 

Serab — Foaled  1821.  By  Phantom  out  of  Jesse,  by  Totteridge,  «fcc. ; 
her  dam  Cracker  by  Highflyer,  out  of  Nutcracker  by  Matchem — 
Regulus — Crab — Childers — Basto,  &c. 

Shadow — Foaled  1759.  By  Babraham — Bolton  Starling — Coughing 
Polly  by  Bartlett's  Childers,  &c.    Imported  into  Virginia  in  1771. 

Shakspeare — Foaled  1823.  By  Smolensko,  dam  Charming  Molly  by 
Rubens,  Comedy  by  Beningborough,  Mrs  Jordan  by  Highflyer, 
&c. 

Shamrock— Foaled  1827.  By  St.  Patrick,  dam  Fairy  by  Woful,  Gon- 
salvi's  dam  by  Remembrancer,  Charmer  by  Phsenomenou,  Fitz 
Herod. 

Shark — Foaled  1771.  By  Marske,  his  dam  by  Shafton's  Snap,  grand 
dam  by  Marlborough — brother  to  Babraham — out  of  a  natural 
Barb  mare. 

Shark  won  12,187  guineas  in  England.  His  blood  is  in  all  the 
best  American  strains,  and  is  undeniable  both  for  speed  and 
courage. 

Shock — By  Shock — Partner — Makeless — Brimmer,  &c. 

Shock — Foaled  1729.  By  Jig,  dam  by  Snake,  Gray  Wilkes  by  Haut- 
boy, Miss  D'Arcy's  Pet  mare,  daughter  of  Sedbury  Royal  mare. 

Silver — Foaled  1789.  By  Mercury,  son  of  Eclipse,  dam  by  Herod, 
grand  dam  Young  Hag  by  Skim,  Crab,  Childers,  Basto,  &c.  Did 
not  succeed  as  a  stallion. 

Silver  Eye — No  date  given.  By  Cullen  Arabian,  dam  Curwen's  Bay 
Barb,  Curwen's  Spot,  White  Legs,  &c.     Very  doubtful. 

SiK  Harry — Foaled  1794  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  out  of  Matron  by  Al 
fred,  g.  dam  the  dam  of  Pilot,  by  Marske,  Regulus,  Steady,  Palmer 
Greyhound,  &c. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  479 

SIR  Peter  Teazle— Foaled  1S02.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle— Mercury— 
Cytherea  by  King  Herod — Blank,  &c. 

Sir  Robert — Foaled  1833.  By  Bobadil,  dam  Fidalma  by  Waxy  Pope, 
grand  dam  Dinarzade  by  Solim,  Princess  by  St.  Peter,  Dungannon, 
Turf,  &c. 

Skylark — Foaled  1826.  By  Waxy  Pope,  dam  Skylark  by  Musican, 
out  of  sister  to  Pirouette  by  Young  Eagle,  Parisot  by  Sir  Peter. 

Slender — Foaled  1779.  By  King  Herod,  dam  Rachel  by  Blank,  grand 
dam  by  Regulus,  Sore  Heels  by  Basto,  Makeless,  &c. 

Slim — Foaled  1768,  imported  1775.  By  Wildman's  Babrabam,  dam 
by  Babrabam,  grand  dam  by  Sedbury,  out  of  Ebony,  &c. 

This  borse  is  named  as  "  Slip "  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book, 
vol.  i.,  p.  7. 

He  is  variously  called  "Slim  "  and  "  Sprightly  "  in  the  Amer- 
ican Books.  H.  W.  H. 

Sloven — Foaled  1756.  By  Cub,  dam  by  Bolton  Starling,  Godolphin 
Arabian,  Bonny  Black,  &c. 

Slouch — Foaled  1745.     By   Cade,  dam  the  Little   Hartley  mare  by 

Bartlett's  Childers — Flying  Whig  by  Woodstock,  &c. 

Sober  John — Foaled  1748.    Imported  into  Virginia,  by  Colonel  Tayloe. 
Not  in  the  Stud  Book  ;  pedigree  unknown ;  very  doubtful.    He 
is  said   to  have  been  got  by  Rib,  and   to  have  run  six  times,  and 
won  twice,  in  England,  in  1754.  H.  W.  H. 

Sorrow — Foaled  in  1836,  in  America  ;  imported  in  the  mare's  belly. 
By  Defence,  dam  Tears  by  Woful. 

SouRKRouT — Foaled  1786.  By  Highflyer,  dam  Jewel  by  Squirrel — 
Sophia  by  Blank. 

Sovereign — Foaled  1836.  By  Emilius,  dam  Fleur  de  Lis  by  Bourbon, 
Lady  Rachel  by  Stamford,  Young  Rachel  by  Volunteer,  Rachel 
by  Highflyer. 

Fleur  de  Lis  was  one  of  the  best  racers  that  ever  ran  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  the  fame  of  Emilius,  both  as  a  race-horse  and  stallion, 
is  undeniable.  Sovereign  has  showed  himself  worthy  of  his  blood, 
being  one  of  the  best  stock-getters  of  the  day. 

Spadille — Foaled  1784.  By  Highflyer,  dam  Flora  by  Squirrel,  An- 
gelica by  Snap,  Regulus,  Bartlett's  Childers,  &c. 


480  THE   H0E8E. 

Spark — Imported  by  Gov.  Ogle.  By  Honeycomb  Punch,  out  of  Miss 
Colville,  also  imported,  by  Old  Hautboy,  Brimmer,  &c. 

He  was  given  to  Gov.  Ogle  by  Lord  Baltimore,  and  to  him  by 
Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  father  of  George  III. 

Speculator — Foaled  1795.  By  Dragon,  Herod  mare,  grand  dam 
Cygnet,  g.  g.  d.  Cartouch.  Ebony  by  Childers,  old  Ebony  by 
Bartes.     Imported  into  Viginia,  1801. 

Spread  Eagle — Foaled  1792.  By  Volunteer,  dam  by  Highflyer,  grand 
dam  by  Engineer,  g.  g.  d.  Cade,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Lass  of  the  Mill  by 
Traveller,  Miss  Makeless. 

"  Spread  Eagle  came  to  Virginia,  where  his  colts  turned  out 
valuable,  and  some  of  them  excellent  racers. 

"  Eagle  also  came,  his  full  brother,  but  did  not  do  so  well ;  his 
stock  was  speedy  but  could  not  stay  a  distance." 

MS.  Notes  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

Stafford — Foaled  1833.  Was  got  by  Memnon,  dam  Sarsaparilla,  by 
Piscator,  grand  dam  Mademoiselle  Presle,  by  St.  Peter,  g.  g.  d.  Nina 
by  Eclipse,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Pomona  by  Herod. 

Stafford  was  foaled  1833.  Imported  in  1835,  was  never  trained. 
Stood  three  seasons  in  South  Carolina,  from  1838  to  November 
1840,  when  he  died. 

Star — Foaled  1786.  By  Highflyer  out  of  a  Snap  mare,  her  dam  Riddle, 
sister  to  Pumpkin,  Matchem,  Squirt,  &c.  &c.  Imported  into  South 
Carolina  by  Gen.  McPherson. 

Starling.  A  gray  horse,  said  to  be  foaled  in  1756.  By  young  Starling, 
Regulus,  Snake,  Croft's  Partner.  No  such  horse  in  Weatherby ; 
nor  any  Eegulus  mare,  dam  by  Snake. 

Starling — Foaled  in  1757.  Said  to  be  a  gray  horse — by  young  Star- 
ling.    Full  brother  in  blood  to  the  preceding. 

Starling — Said  to  be  a  bay  horse,  foaled  1757.  Got  by  young  Starling, 
dam  by  Slipby,  Croft's  Partner,  Greyhound,  &c. 

No  horse  and  no  Slipby  mare,  in  any  way,  agreeing  with  the 
above,  are  to  be  found  in  Weatherby.  All  three,  I  consider,  are 
much  more  than  doubtful. 

Starling — Foaled  in  1800.  By  Sii'  Peter  Teazle,  dam  by  Magnet, 
grand  dam  Le  Sang,  g.  g.  d.  by  Bib,  Mother  Western,  Snake,  Mon- 
tague, Hautboy,  Brimmer. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  481 

Sterlixcj — Said  to  be  foaled  in  1757.  By  young  Starling,  Regulus, 
Roundhead,  Croft's  Partner,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  Trumpet's  dam. 
White  Turk,  Dodsworth,  Layton  Barb. 

Not  in  the  Stud  Book.  Another  of  the  Makeless  and  Brimmer 
Virginia  pedigrees.     Probably  apocryphal. 

Sterling  or  Starling — Said  to  be  foaled  in  1762.  By  the  Bellsize 
Arabian,  dam  by  Bowes'  Snake,  grand  dam  by  Croft's  Partner, 
Nephewson,  Shirley's  mare. 

None  of  these  horses  or  mares  are  in  Weatherby.  Probably, 
the  horse  is  entirely  a  myth.  It  savors  of  a  country  farmer's  ped- 
igree of  a  half-bred,  and  is  credited  to  Mr.  Croft,  of  Baby. 

Stirling — Foaled  1797.  Imported  1799.  By  Volunteer,  out  of  Harriet, 
by  Highflyer,  grand  dam  by  Cade,  out  of  Childerkin,  by  Second, 
out  of  Fox  mare,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Snap. 

Stirling — Foaled  1762.  By  the  Bellsize  Arabian,  out  of  Simpson's 
Snake  mare,  she  by  Snake,  out  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland's  mare, 
dam  of  Cato,  &c. 

St.  GriLES — Foaled  1829.  By  Tramp,  out  of  Arcot  Lass,  by  Ardrossan, 
grand  dam  by  Cramlington,  g.  g.  d.  Floyeskin  by  Stride,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Little  England's  dam  by  Javelin,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  sister  to  Toby  by 
Highflyer.  St.  Griles  won  the  Derby  in  1832,  and  was  imported  to 
Alabama  in  1835. 

St.  G-eorge — Foaled  1789.  By  Highflyer,  dam  by  Eclipse,  Miss  Spin- 
dleshanks  by  Omar,  Godolphiu  Arabian,  &c; 

St.  Paul — Foaled  1791.  By  Saltram,  dam  Purity  by  Matchem,  out 
of  the  Old  Squirt  mare. 

St.  Patrick  Colt — Foaled  1835.  Out  of  Maria  by  Whisker,  grand 
dam  of  Gibside  Fairy,  by  Hermes,  g.  g.  dam  of  Vicissitude  by 
Pipator,  Beatrice,  Sir  Peter,  &c.,  &c.  St.  Patrick  was  got  by  Wal- 
ton, dam  by  Dick  Andrews,  grand  dam  by  Highflyer,  &c.,  &c. 

Strap — Foaled  1800.  By  Beningborough,  dam  by  Highflyer,  grand 
dam  Tatler,  g.  g.  d.  Snip,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Godolphin  Arabian,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Pelham  Barb,  &c. 

Stratford,  b.  c. — Foaled  1834.  By  Shakspeare,  out  of  Pheasant,  by 
Bustard,  her  dam  Plaything,  by  Shuttle.    Capt.  Longford,  Ala. 

Sweeper — Two  pedigrees  of  this  horse  are  given  by  Edgar,  as  follows : 
got  by  Beaver's  Driver,  Thwaite's  Dun  Mare,  Acaster  Turk,  Miss 
Vol.  L— 31 


482  THE   HOESE. 

Belvoir,  by  Gray  Grantham,  Paget  Turk,  Betty  Percival,  Leedes 
Arabian,  Spanker. 

But  the  Stud  Book  has  no  such  pedigree.  Mason's  Farrier 
says,  got  by  Sloe,  dam  by  Mogul,  Partner,  Coneyskins.  Foaled 
1751.     Imported  into  North  Carolina. 

This  last  is  a  correct  pedigree  of  Sweeper,  but  I  find  no  inti- 
mation of  his  having  been  shipped  hither,  and  doubt  it. 

H.  W.  H. 

Swiss — Foaled  1821.  By  Whisker,  dam  by  Shuttle,  grand  dam  Lady 
Sarah,  by  Fidget.  Swiss  was  first  favorite  for  the  St.  Leger,  1824, 
— Jerry's  year. 

Tanner — Said  to  be  by  young  Cade.     Imported  into  Maryland,  and 
run  in  1762.     Not  in  Stud  Book ;  no  more  known  about  him. 
No  reliance  whatever  to  be  placed  on  this.  H.  W.  H. 

Tarquin — Foaled  in  1720.  By  the  Hampton  Court  Arabian,  out  of 
the  Leedes  mare,  by  Leedes,  out  of  the  Moonah  Barb  mare. 

Telegraph — Foaled  in  1795.  By  Guildford,  out  of  Fame,  by  Young 
Espersykes,  out  of  Fidget's  dam,  by  Matchem,  sister  to  Sweetbrier, 
by  Syphon. 

Tickle  Toby — Foaled  in  1786.  Imported  into  Virginia.  By  Alfred, 
out  of  Caelia,  by  Herod,  out  of  Proserpine,  own  sister  to  Eclipse, 
Marske,  Spiletta. 

Toby — Also  called  Sporting  Toby.  Said  to  be  got  by  Janus,  son  of 
Godolphin,  out  of  a  Fox  mare,  her  dam  by  the  Bald  Galloway. 

Not  in  the  Stud  Book,  but  certified  by  Col.  Alston,  North 
Carolina,  who  owned  him. 

Tom  Crib,  c.  h. — By  Gladiator,  dam  Jemima,  by  Count  Porro,  grand 
dam  Mrs.  Suggs,  by  Crispin,  g.  g.  d.  by  Totteridge,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by 
Sir  Peter,  out  of  Maid  of  Ely,  by  Tandem.  Imported  by  Mr.  J. 
Appleton — Goshen,  New  York,  1853. 

This  horse  has  taken  one  or  more  stallion  prizes  at  agricultural 
fairs,  and  stands  chiefly  for  common  mares. 

Tom  Jones — Foaled  1745.    Imported  into  Virginia,  1755.    By  Partner, 

dam  by  True  Blue,  grand    dam  by  Cyprus,  g.  g.  d.  by  Bonny 

Black. 
Touchstone — By  Clothier,  son  of  Matchem,  out  of  Riot,  by  Regulus ; 

Matchem  was  by  Cade,  out  of  a  Partner  mare,  &c.,  &c. 

The  dam  of  Touchstone  is  not  given.     There  is  no  authority 

whatever  for  this  horse. 


IMPORTED    STALLIONS.  483 

Tranby— Foaled  1826.  Imported  into  America,  1835.  Got  by  Black- 
lock,  dam  by  Orville,  Miss  Grimstone,  by  Weazle,  Ancaster,  &c. 

Very  great  expectations  were  placed  upon  this  horse  as  a  four- 
mile  stock-getter,  owing  to  his  having  carried  Mr.  Osbaldiston  in 
his  200  mile  match;  four  heats  of  four  miles  each,  in  8.10,  8.0, 
8.19,  8.50 — in  all  sixteen  miles — in  33.15,  with  11  stone,  154  lbs. 
on  his  back. 

He  turned  out  of  no  profit  as  a  stock-getter.  He  had  only 
been  a  third-rate  racer  before,  but  it  appears  to  me  that  he  settles 
the  question  that  English  horses,  properly  selected  and  trained, 
have  not  degenerated  as  distance-goers — they  certainly  have  not  as 
weight-carriers — by  the  modern  system.  H.  W.  H. 

Traveller,  Moreton's — The  pedigree  of  this  celebrated  stallion  is  dis- 
puted, or  rather,  it  is  not  clear  which  of  two  horses  he  is. 

He  is  said  to  have  been  bred  by  Mr.  Croft ;  foaled  about  1748, 
by  Partner,  dam  by  Bloody  Buttocks,  Greyhound,  Makeless, 
Brimmer,  White  Turk,  Dodsworth,  Layton  Barb. 

The  identical,  ever-recurring  Virginia  pedigree  of  every  race- 
horse, whose  name  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Stud  Book. 

The  other  pedigree  is, 

Coatworth's  Traveller,  by  old  Traveller,  dam  Bartlett's  Chil- 
ders,  grand  dam  Mr.  Durham's  gray  mare,  by  a  son  of  the  Bald 
Galloway,  out  of  Daffodill's  dam,  by  a  foreign  horse  of  Sir  Thomas 
Gascoigne. 

Old  Traveller — Osbaldiston's — was  by  Partner,  dam  by  Alman- 
zor,  Gray  Hautboy,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  &c.  He  was  sire  of  Squirrel, 
Dainty  Davy,  and  the  Dam  of  Morwick  Ball.  The  death  of  this 
horse  is  not  recorded  in  the  History  of  the  British  Turf,  and  he 
may  have  been  exported,  but  he  was  foaled  in  1735,  which  date  does 
not  seem  to  agree. 

I  may  be  in  error.  But  the  moment  I  see  the  six  names  of 
Greyhound,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  White  Turk,  Dodsworth,  Layton 
Barb  in  a  Virginia  pedigree,  I  suspect  a  forgery. 

If  not  all,  at  least  two-thirds  of  all  the  thoroughbred  horses  im- 
ported into  Virginia,  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
were  either  out  of  the  same  mare,  or  out  of  own  sisters,  which  is 
not  easily  credible. 

Traveller — Strange's — alias  Big  Ben. — Said  to  be  got  by  O'Kelly's 
Eclipse,  King  Herod,  Old  Cade,  Snip,  Croft's  Partner,  Bloody 
Buttocks,  Greyhound,  Makeless,  Brimmer,  White  Turk,  Dodsworth, 
Layton  Barb. 


484 


THK    IIOKSK. 


This  horse  was  oviginally  called  Charlemont,  and  is  to  be  found 
as  such  in  the  Stud  Book,  vol.  i.,  327.  He  was  then  called  Big 
Ben,  and  lastly,  Traveller. 

I  at  first  utterly  discredited  this  horse ;  and  his  owners,  for  their 
stupidity  in  changing  his  name,  deserve  that  he  should  have  been 
discredited,  except  that  it  is  hard  to  deteriorate  the  blood  of  a  racer 
in  consequence  of  an  owner's  idiocy.  H.  W.  H. 

Trincdlo — Said  to  be  by  old  Trinculo,  Justice,  Highflyer,  Stargazer,  &c. 
Not  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book.     Probably  no  such  horse. 

H.  W.  H. 
True  Blue — Foaled  1797.    Imported  into  North  Carolina.    By  Walnut, 
dam  King  Fergus,  grand  dam  Caelia  by  Herod,  out  of  Proserpine, 
own  sister  to  Eclipse. 

Truffle — Bred  by  the  Duke  de  Guiche.  By  Truffle,  out  of  Helen  by 
Whiskey,  her  dam  Brown  Justice  by  Justice,  Old  Truffle  by 
Sorcerer,  out  of  Hornby  Lass  by  Buzzard.  Imported  into  Vir- 
ginia, 1830. 

Trustee — Foaled  1829.  By  Catton,  out  of  Emma  by  Whisker.  Imported 
into  Virginia,  1835,  by  Mr.  Corbin.  He  has  greatly  distinguished 
himself  as  a  stock -getter,  and  the  sire  of  racers  of  the  highest  form. 
He  is  sire  of  the  famous  mare  Fashion,  out  of  Bonnets  of  Blue, 
unquestionably  the  best  mare  that  has  ever  run  in  America,  and 
of  the  half-bred  horse  Trustee,  out  of  Fanny  Pullen,  who  trotted 
twenty  miles  in  the  hour.  H.  W.  H. 

Tryal — It  is  questionable  whether  this  horse  was  got  here  after  the 
importation  of  his  parents,  or  imported.  He  was  by  Moreton's 
Traveller,  out  of  imported  mare  Blazella  by  Blaze,  grand  dam 
Jenny  Cameron,  imported;  by  Cuddy,  son  of  Fox,  g.  g.  d.  Miss 
Belvoir  by  Gray  Grantham. 

But  here  is  difficulty  again  all  round.  There  is  no  Blazella  by 
Blaze,  in  the  Stud  Book,  nor  any  Jenny  Cameron;  nor  had  Miss 
Belvoir  any  foal  by  Cuddy.  There  is  much  doubt  about  this  horse, 
although  he  and  Traveller  were,  doubtless,  both  thoroughbred,  and 
in  a  high  form. 

Tup — Foaled  in  1796.  By  Javelin,  out  of  Flavia  by  Plunder,  Miss 
Euston,  Snap,  Blank,  Cartouch,  Highflyer's  g.  g.  d. 

Valentine — Foaled  1828.  By  Magistrate,  out  of  Miss  Forester  by 
old  Dibmed,  Sweet  William,  Thetis  by  Chemist,  Curiosity  by  Snap, 
Regulus,  Bartlett's  Childers,  &c. 


1^^ 


mPOETED    STALLIONS.  487 

the  favorite  horse  in  King  William  lY.'s  stables,  and  the  Colonel 
was  constantly  sacrificed  to  him,  but  always  beat  him,  as  did  also 
Fleur-de-lis  by  Bourbon.  I  always  regarded  him,  as  a  vastly  over- 
rated horse,  and  he  has  entirely  failed  as  a  stallion,  after  having 
had  every  imaginable  opportunity  of  mares  of  the  best  form. 
He  died  of  a  fall,  in  1842,  in  Kentucky. 

ZiNGAXEE  Colt,  br.  h. — Out  of  Miss  Andrews  by  Catton,  grand  dam 
Dick  Andrews.  Imported,  with  his  dam,  by  Mr.  Clay,  Kentucky, 
in  1841. 


LIST 


IMPORTED    MARES    AND    FILLIES. 

AcTiEON  Filly — Foaled  1836.  By  Actaeon,  dam  Ada,  sister  to  Augusta, 
by  Woful,  grand  dam  by  Kubens,  g.  g.  d.  Guildford  mare  by  Guild- 
ford, son  of  Highflyer,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Justice,  &c.  Bred  by  King 
William  IV.     Imported  into  Indiana  by  Col.  Oakley,  1840. 

AcTiEON  Filly,  b.  filly. — Foaled  1836.  By  Actaeon  out  of  Scandal, 
by  Selim,  her  dam  by  Haphazard.  Imported  into  South  Carolina 
by  Col.  Hampton. 

Adana,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1832.  ]iy  Sultan,  dam  Rachel  by  Whalebone, 
grand  dam  sister  to  Castanea,  by  Gohanna,  g.  g.  d.  Gray  Skim,  by 
Woodpecker ;  g.  g.  g.  d.  Silver's  dam,  by  Herod  ;  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Young 
Hag,  by  Skim  ;  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Hag,  by  Crab;  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Ebony, 
by  Childers,  Old  Ebony,  &c.,  «fec.  Imported  into  Alabama  by  E. 
H.  Boardman. 

Alarm,  br.  m. — Foaled  1820.     By  Thunderbolt,  dam  Zadora,  by  Tra- 
falgar, grand  dam  NikiL'  by  Alexander,  g.  g.  d.  Nimble,  by  Florizel, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Rantipole,  by  Blank,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Joan,  sister  to  Care- 
less, by  Eegulus.     Imported  into  New  York  by  C.  H.  Hall. 
She  produced  stock. 

1825.  Bl.  c.  by  Lord  Derby's  Eastham,  foaled  in  America. 
■Died  of  distemper  at  six  months. 

1826.  Missed  to   Mountaineer,   by   Duroc,  out  of  Placentia. 
Bred  by  C.  H.  H. 

1827.  Bl.  f.  by  American  Eclipse.     Sold  to  Capt.  Maxwell. 


IMPORTED   MAKES    AND    FILLIES.  489 

1828.  Br.  c.  by  Bussora  Arabian. 

1829.  Bl.  filly  by  American  Eclipse. 

1830.  Bl.  filly,  Alert,  by  Eclipse  Lightfoot. 

1831.  B.  filly,  Clara  Howard,  by  Eclipse  Lightfoot, 

Albeutazzi,  formerly  Fuga,  cb.  m. — Foaled  in  1829.  By  Partisan, 
dam  Bravura,  by  Outcry,  grand  dam  Prodigious,  by  Caleb  Quotem, 
son  of  Sir  Peter,  g.  g.  d.  Fair  Forester,  by  Alesandei*,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by 
Sir  Peter,  out  of  Maid  of  Ely,  by  Tandem.  Imported  into  Ala- 
bama by  E.  H.  Boardman. 

Alexaxdria — Foaled  1796.  By  Alexander,  dam  by  Woodpecker,  grand 
dam  by  Phlegon,  out  of  Lord  Egremont's  Highflyer  mare,  &c. 

j0H>f  HOOMES. 

But  I  cannot  find  that  Lord  Egremont's  Highflyer  mare  ever 
had  a  foal  to  Phlegon,  or  that  any  Woodpecker  mare  had  one  to 
Alexander.  H.  W.  H. 

Amanda,  b.  m. — Foaled  1828.  By  Morisco,  dam  Mantua,  by  Woful, 
grand  dam  Miltonia,  by  Patriot,  son  of  Whiskey ;  g.  g.  d.  by  King 
Fergus,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Espersykes,  «S:c. 

Morisco  was  by  Muley,  son  of  Orville,  out  of  Aquilina,  by 
Eagle,  Precipitate,  Woodpecker,  &c.  Imported  into  Alabama  by 
E.  H.  Boardman. 

Amixa,  b.  m. — Foaled  1882.  By  Gaberlunzie,  dam  Luna,  by  Wan- 
derer, grand  dam  by  Canopus,  son  of  Gohanna,  g.  g.  d.  by  Teddy 
the  Grinder,  son  of  Asparagus,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Precipitate,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
by  Pumpkin,  out  of  Fleacatcher  by  Goldfinder. 

Gaberlunzie  was  by  Wanderer,  dam  by  Selim,  grand  dam 
Maiden,  by  Sir  Peter,  Phenomenon,  Florizel,  Matchem,  &c. 

Amcrath  Filly,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1842.  By  Amurath,  dam  by  Kecovery, 
grand  dam  The  Nun,  by  Blacklock. 

Messrs.  Cammack  &  Co.,  Neiv  Orleans. 
But  The  Nun  had  no  filly  by  Recovery  so  late  as  1835. 

H.  W.  H. 
Amurath  Filly,  ch.  filly — Foaled  1842.     By  Amurath,  son  of  Langar, 
dam  ch.  mare  by  Champion,  grand  dam  by  Cestrian,  g.  g.  d.  Pau- 
lina, by  Orville.  Messrs.  Cammack  &  Co. 

Anviltna,  b.  m. — Foaled  1794  or  1796.  By  Anvil,  dam  Augusta,  by 
Eclipse,  out  of  Hardwicke's  dam  by  Herod.  Bred  by  O'Kelly, 
presented  by  him  to  Colonel  Tayloe. 


490  THE  hokst:. 

Augusta — Foaled  1802.  By  Saltram,  dam  by  Wildair,  g.  d,  by  Clockfast, 
g.  g.  d.  by  Apollo,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Janus,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Jolly  lloger. 

William  Rives. 
I  quote  this  from  Mason's  Farrier,  but  cannot  verify  the  mare, 
and  it  is  clearly  an  American,  not  English,  pedigree.     H.  AV.  H. 

Augustus  Filly,  br.  f. — By  Augustus  out  of  Toso,  by  Rainbow.  Im- 
ported 1839.  Pouter's  T.  E.,  vol.  ix.  old  ed. 

AuRELiA,  b.  f. — Foaled  1794  or  1796.  By  Anvil,  dam  Augusta  by 
Eclipse — own  sister  to  Anvilina,  above.  Both  these  mares  seem  to 
have  been  named  after  their  importation.  H.  W,  H. 

Bay  Malton  Filly. — Foaled  1837.  By  Bay  Malton,  dam  by  Whisker, 
grand  dam  I'm  Sure  He  Shaut,  by  Coriolanus,  g.  g.  d.  Warrior's 
Dam  by  Young  Marske,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Matchem,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Tarquin, 
g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Young  Belgrade.  J.  Maxwell,  S.  Carolina. 

Bashful,  b.  f.— Foaled  1831.  By  St.  Patrick,  dam  Spavina,  by  Orville, 
grand  dam  Mirandola,  by  Haphazard,  g.  g.  d.  Allegretta,  by 
Trumpator,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Y.  Camilla,  by  Woodpecker,  g,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Camilla,  by  Trentham,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Coquette,  by  the  Compton 
Barb,  out  of  Sister  to  Regulus. 

Sent  to  America  in  1835.      Weatherby's  S.  B.,  vol.  iv.,  302. 

Battledore  Mare — Foaled  1833  By  Battledore,  out  of  Miua,  by 
Gen.  Mina,  out  of  Maid  of  Lorn,  by  Castrel,  Richardson's  Marske, 
Buckingham,  Eclipse,  &c.,  &c.  E.  H.  Boardman. 

Belzoni  Filly,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1837.  By  Belzoni,  out  of  Amanda,  by 
Morisco.     See  above,  p.     .  E.  H.  Boardman. 

BiRDCATCHER  FiLLY,  b.  f. — Foaled  1838.  By  Birdcatcher — dam  the 
dam  of  Jacob  Faithful,  by  Rubens,  grand  dam  the  Hipped  mare, 
by  Meteor,  g.  g.  d.  Petrowna,  by  Sir  Peter. 

Birdcatcher  was  by  St.  Patrick  out  of  Pick  Pocket's  dam. 

BiRDCATCHER  FiLLY — Foalcd  1836.  By  Birdcatcher,  dam  by  Phan- 
tom, out  of  Breeze,  by  Soothsayer,  out  of  Blowing,  by  Buzzard, 
Pot8os,  Maid  of  All  Work,  &c.,  &c. 

Black  Bess — By  Belzoni,  out  of  Livonia,  by  Smolensko,  g.  d.  Stella,  by 
L' Orient,  ivuler,  Magdalena,  by  Highflyer,  &c.,  &c.  Imported  into 
Louisiana. 

Blacklock,  Young,  Mare — By  Y.  Blacklock,  out  of  Spermaceti,  by 
Whalebone.  Sold  for  $1,000  by  A.  D.  Shepherd  to  Rouzau  du 
Plantier,  of  New  Orleans,  La. 


niPOKTED    MARES    AND    FILLIES.  491 

Blossom — By  Old  Sloe,  dam  by  Kegulus,  the  sire  of  Fearnought. 

Thos.  Nelsox,  Virginia. 
This  mare  is  not  to  be  identified  in  the  S.  B.  H.  W.  H. 

Bonny  Lass,  b.  f. — Foaled  1723.     By  Bay  Bolton,  dam  by  Darley  Ara- 
bian,  grand  dam  Byerly  Turk,  g.  g.   d.  Taffolet  Barb,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Plaice's  W.  Turk,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Barb  mare. 
Bonny  Lass  was  the  dam  of — 

1730.  Merry  Andrew,  by  Fox. 

1731.  Bay  Colt  by  Partner. 

1735.  Spectator's  dam  by  ditto. 

1736.  Paragon,  Mystery's  dam,  by  Snip. 

1738.     Zamora's  grand  dam  by  the  Lonsdale  Arabian. 
And  in  1739  a  second  b.  c.  Merry  Andrew,  by  Fox. 
I  find  no  evidence  that  this  mare  ever  came  to  America,  and 
greatly  doubt  it.     If  so,  she  must  have  been  18  or  19  years  old 
when  imported.  H.  W.  H. 

Britannia,  b.  f. — Foaled  1800.  By  Pegasus,  dam  Peggy,  by  Trum- 
pator,  grand  dam  Peggy,  sister  to  Postmaster,  by  Herod,  g.  g.  d. 
by  Snap,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  the  Gower  Stallion,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Chil- 
ders.  She  was  imported  in  her  dam's  belly.  Peggy  being  also 
imported  by  Col.  Tayloe. — Weatherby's  S.  B.,  vol.  i.,  p.  419. 
Britannia  was  very  fast,  but  invariably  bolted. 

Britannia,  2,  b.  m. — Foaled  1836.  By  Actseon,  dam  Scandal  by  Selim, 
g.  d.  by  Haphazard,  g.  g.  d.  by  Precipitate,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Colibri,  by 
Woodpecker. 

She  was  bred  by  King  William  IV.,  and  ran  a  winner  in  Amer- 
ica. There  is  yet  a  Britannia  3,  named  in  Mason's  Farriery,  by 
Muley,  out  of  Nancy,  by  Dick  Andrews ;  but  it  does  not  appear 
from  the  Stud  Book  that  Nancy  ever  bore  a  foal  to  Muley.  Her 
produce  are  given  in  vol.  iii.  Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  down  to  1827, 
and  she  does  not  appear  in  vol.  iv.  H.  W.  H. 

Brown  Filly — Foaled  1802.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  dam  by  Wood- 
pecker, grand  dam  by  Sweetbrier,  out  of  Buzzard's  dam.  The 
Woodpecker  mare,  dam  of  this  filly,  was  own  sister  to  the  dam  of 
Horns,  by  Precipitate,  who  was  imported  into  Virginia  by  Colonel 
Hoomes.  The  filly  was  imported  into  South  Carolina  by  General 
McPherson. 

In  Mason's  Farriery  this  filly  is  erroneously  stated  to  be  out  of 
the  dam  of  Horns.  H.  W.  H. 


492  THE    HORSE. 

Camel  Filly,  br.  f. — Foaled  1835.  By  Camel,  sire  of  Toucbstone,  dam 
Codicil,  by  Smolensko,  grand  dam  Legacy,  by  Beninbrough,  g.  g.  d. 
Koxana,  by  Sir  Peter.     Bred  by  King  AVilliam  IV. 

Camel  Filly,  br.  f. — Foaled  1837.  By  Camel,  dam  Miranda,  by 
Woful,  grand  dam  by  Beninbrough,  g.  g.  d.  the  dam  of  Blackiock, 
by  Coriander,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Wildgoose,  by  Highflyer,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Co- 
heiress by  PotSos,  &c.     Imported  into  Alabama. 

E.  H.  BOARDMAN, 

Camilla — Imported.     By  Dove,  &c. 

There  is  no  such  mare  in  the  Stud  Books  as  Camilla  by  Dove, 
nor  any  such  stallion  that  I  can  discover  as  Dove.  There  is  a 
Camilla  by  a  son  of  Bay  Bolton,  foaled  in  1746.  But  it  can  scarce 
be  she.  H.  W.  H. 

Castiaxira,  br.  m. — Foaled  1796.  By  Rockingham,  dam  Tabitha,  by 
Trentham.  She  was  the  dam  of  imported  Sir  Archy,  by  imported 
Diomed.     See  G-enealogical  Table,  No.  3. 

Champion  Mare,  ch,  m. — Foaled  1832.  By  Champion,  son  of  Selim, 
dam  by  Cestrian,  grand  dam  Paulina,  by  Orville.  1843.  Imported 
into  Louisiana.  Lewis  and  Clayborne. 

Chance,  ch.m — Foaled  1832.  By  Patron,  dam  Ramoua  by  Whisker, 
grand  dam  Lady  Cramfeazer,  by  Stamford,  son  of  Sir  Peter,  g.  g.  d. 
Mrs.  Barnet,  by  Waxy,  sou  of  PotSos,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Woodpecker, 
Squirrel,  Black,  &c.  Imported  into  Alabama  by  E.  H.  Board- 
man. 

Chateau,  b.  f. — Foaled  1835.  By  Chateau  Margaux,  dam  Cuirass,  by 
Oiseau,  grand  dam  Castanea,  She  ran  a  winner  in  the  United 
States. 

Cinderella,  b.  f. — Foaled  1801.  By  Sir  Peter,  dam  Lord  Egremont's 
Mercury  mare,  dam  of  Vivaldi,  grand  dam  Cytherea,  by  Herod. 
Sent  to  South  Carolina.  Weatherby's  S.  B. 

Colonel  Mare,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1835.  By  the  Colonel,  dam  Peri,  dam 
of  Sir  Hercules  and  Langford,  &c.,  by  Wanderer,  grand  dam 
Thalestris  by  Alexander,  g.  g.  d.  Rival,  by  Sir  Peter.  Owned  by 
King  William  IV. 

Colonel  Filly,  ch.  f— Foaled  1836.  By  The  Colonel  out  of  Miss 
Clifton,  by  Partisan,  her  dam  Isis,  by  Sir  Peter,  out  of  Ibis,  by 
Woodpecker,  Isabella,  by  Eclipse. 

Col.  W.  Hampton,  South  Carolina. 


nvrPORTED   MARES    AND   FILLIES.  493 

Colonel  Filly,  ch.  f.— Foaled  1838.     By  The  Colonel,  out  of  Variella. 

L.  J.  Polk,  Tennessee. 

CoMus  Mare,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1834.  By  Comus,  dam  by  Partisan,  grand 
dam  Fawn  by  Trumpator,  own  sister  to  Penelope,  g.  g.  d.  Prunella 
by  Highflyex-.     Imp.  by  Com.  Stockton. 

Cora,  ch.  m. — By  Muley  Molock,  dam  by  Champion.  Has  run  a  win- 
ner in  the  United  States  since  1839.  Mason's  Farrier. 

Cdb. — This  is  the  famous  Cub  mare  imported  by  Colonel  Delancy. 
Foaled  1762,  dam  of  Mr.  Gribson's  Cub  mare,  killed  on  the  race- 
course at  Lancaster.  She  is  not  to  be  identified  in  the  Stud  Book, 
but  her  pedigree  may  be  held  unquestionable. 

By  Cub — Son  of  Old  Fox,  dam  by  Torismond,  son  of  the  Bolton 
Starling,  grand  dam  by  Second  brother  to  Snip.  Her  dam  is  not 
known  ;  but  there  is  no  question  of  her  blood.  Slie  was  imported 
in  1767  by  the  owner  of  Lath  and  AVildair,  and  is  one  of  the  few 
famous  mares  before  the  B  evolution,  which  stand  as  the  Royal 
Mares  in  the  English  Stud  Books.  H.  W.  H. 

Delphine — Foaled  1825.  By  Whisker,  out  of  My  Lady  by  Comus, 
out  of  the  Colonel's  dam.  Imported  by  Col.  W.  Hampton,  South 
Carolina. 

Design,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1827.  By  Tramp,  dam  Defiance  by  Eubens, 
grand  dam  Little  Folly  by  Highland  Fling,  g.  g.  d.  Harriet  by 
Volunteer,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Alfred,  &c.  Imported  in  1840  by  E.  H. 
Boardmau. 

Diana,  b.  m. — Foaled  1828.  By  Catton,  dam  Trulla  by  Sorcerer,  grand 
dam  by  Weathercock,  g.  g.  d.  Cora  by  Matchem,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by 
Turk,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Cub. 

Doris — Foaled  1834.  By  the  Colonel,  dam  Arethusa  by  Quiz,  Persep- 
olis  by  Alexander,  Sister  to  Tickle  Toby,  by  Alfred,  Celia  by  He- 
rod, Proserpine,  sister  to  Eclipse,  by  Marske,  Spiletta  by  Regulus, 
&c.,  &c.  Allen  J.  Davie,  N.  C. 

Duchess,  b.  m. — By  Grouse,  son  of  Highflyer,  dam  by  Babraham,  grand 
dam  by  Partner.     Imported  into  Virginia  ia  1801. 

John  Randolph. 

Duchess  of  York,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1821.  By  Catton,  dam  by  Sancho, 
Blacklock's  dam,  grand  dam  by  Coriander,  g.  g.  d.  Wildgoose,  sis- 
ter to  Hyperion  by  Highflyer.     Imported  into  Virginia. 

R.  D.  Shepherd. 


494  THE  HORSE. 

Ebony  or  Young  Ebony,  gr.  f. — Foaled  1762.  By  Panton's  Arabian — 
called  Muley — dam  his  Old  Crab  mare,  grand  dam  by  Childers, 
g.  d.  Confederate  Filly  by  Grantham,  g.  g.  d.  by  Rutland  Black 
Barb,  Bright's  Roan. 

She  was  probably  named  in  America,  and  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  Young  Ebony  by  Crab,  out  of  Old  Ebony  by  Basto. 
See  Panton's  Crab  Mare — Weatherby's  Stud  Book,  vol.  i.,  p.  56 — 
the  date,  however,  is  wrong.  Panton's  Crab  Mare  bore  no  foal  to 
Muley  between  1755  and  1770,  unless  it  were  iu  1756,  1759,  or 
1761,  in  none  of  which  years  has  she  any  foal  recorded.  After 
1770  she  is  not  named  in  the  books.  H.  W.  H. 

EfflLY,  b.  f. — Foaled  1834.  By  Emilius,  dam  Elizabeth  by  Rainbow, 
grand  dam  Belvoirina  by  Stamford,  g.  g.  d.  sister  of  Silver  by 
Mercury.  Owned  by  King  William  IV.  Sent  to  South  Carolina. 
Ran  a  winner  in  the  United  States. — Mason's  Farrier.  Weath- 
erby's Stud  Book,  vol.  iv.,  102. 

Ella — Foaled  1835.     By  Emilius,  out  of  Ada,  sister  to  Augustus,  &c. 

Col.  W.  Hampton,  S.  G. 

Emilius  Filly  b.  f— Foaled  1836.  By  Emilius,  out  of  Polly  Hopkins, 
«fec.  R.  L.  Stevens,  N.  Y. 

Equity — Foaled  1835.  By  Humphry  Clinker,  out  of  Justitia  by  Cer- 
vantes, grand  dam  Lady  Racliel  by  Stamford,  &c.,  &c.  Imported 
into  Louisiana, 

Fair  Charlotte,  b.  f. — Foaled  1808.  By  Teddy  the  Grrinder,  dam  by 
Precipitate,  grand  dam  Colibri  by  Woodpecker,  g.  g.  d.  Camella  by 
Trentham,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Coquette  by  the  Sedley  Arabian.  Sent  to 
America. — Weathers y,  vol.  ii.,  290. 

Falconet,  b.  h. — Foaled  1830.  By  Falcon,  dam  by  Catton,  grand  dam 
Hannah  by  Sorcerer.  Imported  by  Messrs.  Clay  into  Kentucky  in 
1841. 

Favorite,  b.  m. — Foaled  1790.  By  Volunteer,  dam  Matchem,  grand 
dam  by  Dainty  Davy,  son  of  Mogul,  g.  g.  d.  by  Crab,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Bay  Bolton,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Curwen  Bay  Barb.  Named  after  impor- 
tation  into  Virginia,  1796.  John  Hoomes. 

FiLHO  DA  Puta  Mare,  '<  The  Nun's  daughter,"  br.  ni. — Foaled  1834. 
By  Filho  da  Puta,  dam  The  Nun,  by  Blackloek,  grand  dam  by  Whis- 
ker, g.  g.  d.  by  Orville,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Expectation,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Cala- 
bria by  Spadille,  Alfred,  Changeling,  Cade,  &c.  Imported  into 
A.labama,  1838.  E.  H.  Boardman. 


IMPORTED   MARES    AND   FILLIES.  495 

FiLHO  DA  PcTA  Mare,  b.  m. — By  Filho  da  Puta,  dam  sister  to  Spartan 
by  Milo,  grand  dam  Pamela  by  Whiskey,  g.  g.  d.  Lais  by  Diomed, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Grace  by  Snap.     Imported  into  Louisiana. 

A.  D.  Shepherd. 

FiLHO  DA  Puta  Mare,  b.  m. — Foaled  1833.  Dam  by  Rubens,  grand 
dam  The  Hipped  mare  by  Meteor,  g.  g.  d.  Petrowna  by  Sir  Peter, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Georgiana  by  Sweetbrier,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Capella  by  Ze- 
rod,  &c.     Imported  into  Louisiana.  E.  H.  Boardmax. 

FiLHo  DA  Puta  Mare — Foaled  1833.  By  Filho  da  Puta,  out  of  Ze- 
phyrina  by  Middlethorpe  out  of  Pagoda.  Charlestox,  S.  C. 

Florestixe— Foaled  1829.  By  Whisker,  out  of  Flora  by  Camillus, 
her  dam  by  Ruler,  out  of  Treecreeper  by  Woodpecker,  Trentham. 

H.  KiRKMAX,  La. 

FoRTUNA — Foaled  1837.  By  Langar,  dam  by  Whisker,  grand  dam  by 
Orville,  out  of  Ottrington's  dam  by  Expectation,  Calabria  by 
Spadille,  «fcc.,  <fcc.  Louisiana. 

Fraxces — Foaled  1833.  By  Emilius,  dam  Valve  by  Bob  Booty,  grand 
dam  Wire,  sister  to  Whalebone,  b}^  Waxy  out  of  Penelope. 

Charleston,  S.  C. 

Gabrielle,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1820.  By  Partisan,  dam  Coquette  by 
Dick  Andrews,  g.  g.  d.  Vanity  by  Buzzard,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Dapchick  by 
Pot8os,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Drab  by  Highflyer,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Hebe  by 
Chrysolite,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Proserpine,  sister  to  Eclipse.  Im- 
ported into  Alabama.  E.  H.  Boardman. 

Gasteria,  b.  f. — By  Balloon,  dam  by  Marske,  the  dam  of  Gass,  grand 
dam  Cremona  by  Regulus,  g.  g.  d.  by  Traveller,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Hip, 
g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Snake,  Rutland  Black  Barb,  Blunderbuss,  D'Arcy, 
gray,  Royal  Mare.  The  dam  of  Gasteria  was  foaled  in  1780.  She 
was  imported  in  1790. — Masox's  Farrier.  Weatherbt,  vol.  i.,  58. 

GoLDWiRE,  br.  m. — Foaled  1823.  By  Whalebone,  dam  by  Gohanna, 
grand  dam  Amazon,  by  Driver,  g.  g.  d.  Fractious,  by  Mercury 
g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Woodpecker.     Bred  by  Lord  Egremont. 

GuxiLDA,  gr.  f. — Foaled  1779.     By  Star,  dam  Virago,  by  the  Panton 
Arabian,  grand  dam  Crazy,  by  Lath,  g.  g.  d.  sister  to  Snip. 
Star  was  by  Regulus. 

Hackabout.  By  Eclipse,  dam  by  Syphon  and  sister  to  Tandem,  grand 
dam  sister  to  Apollo  by  Regulus,  Snip,  &c.     Foaled  1794. 

J.   HOOMES. 


496 


THE   HORSE. 


It  does  not  distinctly  appear  what  Hackabout  was;  but  I 
believe,  a  uiare.  She  cannot  be  traced  because  the  Syphon,  sister 
to  Tandem,  is  only  mentioned  in  Weatherby's  Stud  Book  as  the 
dam  of  Maid  of  all  Works.  H.  W.  H. 

Helen,  b.  m.— Foaled  1836.  By  Priam,  dam  Malibran,  by  Rubens 
grand  dam  Bolter's  dam,  by  Trumpator,  g.  g.  d.  by  Highflyer 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Otheothea.     She  has  run  a  winner  in  the  United  States 

HiPPOXA,  br.  m. — Foaled  1802.  By  Sir  Peter,  dam  by  Woodpecker, 
grand  dam  by  Sweetbrier,  g.  g.  d.  Buzzard's  dam  by  Dux,  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Curiosity  by  Snap. 

Imported  into  South  Carolina.  Gen.  MoPhekson. 

Hope,  eh.  m. — Foaled  1826.  By  Rubens,  dam  by  Hajihazard,  grand 
dam  Promise  by  Walton,  g.  g.  d.  Parasol  by  PotSos,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
Prunella  by  Highflyer,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Julia,  by  Blank  g.  g.  g. 
g.  g.  g.  d.  Spectator's  dam  by  Partner. 

Imported  into  Alabama.  E.  H.  Boardman. 

There  is  another  Hope  by  Volunteer,  no  dam  or  date  named. 
Said  to  be  imported  by  Dr.  Tate,  of  Philadelphia,  but  I  cannot 
identify  her.  H.  W.  H. 

HouRi — By  Langar,  dam  Aunot  Lyle  by  Ashton,  grand  dam  Lamia, 
sister  to  Quail,  by  Gohanna,  g.  g.  d.  Certhia  by  Woodpecker,  g.  g. 
g.  d.  by  Trentham,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Cunegonde  by  Blank,  &c. 

Ashton  was  by  Walnut,  son  of  Highflyer,  out  of  Maiden  by 
Matchem,  dam  Miss  Haworth  by  Spadille,  grand  dam  by  Clayhall 
Marske,  &c.,  &c.  She  has  run  a  winner,  in  the  United  States, 
since  1839.     Mason's  Farrier.     Weatheby's  Stud  Book. 

Heads  or  Tails — Foaled  1831.  By  Lottery,  dam  Active  by  Partisan, 
out  of  Eleanor  by  Whiskey,  Young  Giantess  by  Diomed,  Giantess 
by  Matchem,  &c.,  &c.  H.  Clay,  jr.,  Kentucky. 

Humphry  Clinker  Filly,  ch.  filly — Foaled  1835.  By  Humphry  Clinker, 
out  of  Lady  Newton  by  Oiseau,  dam  by  Haphazard,  grand  dam  by 
Stamford  out  of  Alexina  by  King  Fergus,  Lardella  by  Marske, 
&c.,  &c.  H.  Kirkman,  L  a. 

Hyacinth — Foaled  1836.  By  Barytes,  dam  Zafra  by  Partisan,  Zaida 
by  Sir  Peter,  &c.,  &c.  A.  J.  D'avie,  N.  G. 

Isabella,  br.  f. — Foaled  1802.  By  Trumpator,  dam  Demirep,  sister 
to  Noble  by  Highflyer,  grand  dam  Brim  by  Squirrel,  g.  g.  d.  Helen, 
by  Blank,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Crab,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  sister  to  Partner,  &c. 


IMPOKTED    MAKES    AND    FILLIES.  497 

Named  after  being  imported  iuto  South  Carolina  by  Gen. 
McPherson. 
Isabella,  cla.  fill j— Foaled  1819.  By  Comus,  dam  Shuttle  mare,  grand 
dam  by  Oberou,  g.  g.  d.  by  Phaenomenon,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Calliope  by 
Slouch,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Lass  of  the  Mill  by  Oroonoko,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
by  Traveller,  out  of  Miss  Makeless,  &c. 

Isabella  was  imported  into  New  York  in  the  ship  Napoleon,  by 
Mr.  Harrison,  for  Admiral  Coffin,  in  January,  1830.  She  was  in 
foal  by  Lottery,  formerly  Tinker,  by  Tramp. 

MS.  Notes  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

Janette,  b.  f. — Foaled  1791.  By  Mercury,  dam  by  Highflyer,  grand 
dam  by  Snap,  g.  g.  d.  Miss  Middleton  by  Kegulus,  &c. 

Imported,  1798,  into  Virginia.  John  Hoomes. 

Jenny  Cameron — By  Quiet  Cuddy,  son  of  Fox,  said  to  be  out  of  Miss 
Belvoir.  But  according  to  Pick  and  Weatherby,  Miss  Belvoir 
never  had  a  foal  except  to  Childers,  saving  one  filly  to  the  Walpole 
Barb,  after  1735.  The  mare  in  question  was  an  undeniable  mare, 
both  as  a  racer  herself,  and  a  dam  of  racers ;  her  pedigree,  it  ap- 
pears, is  not  questioned,  but  I  cannot  reconcile  it  with  the  books. 
Imported  by  John  Tayloe, 

Jenny  Dismal — By  Old  Dismal,  he  by  the  Grodolphin  Arabian,  her  dam 
by  Lord  Godolphin's  Whitefoot.  Whitefoot  was  by  Bay  Bolton 
out  of  a  Darley  Arabian  mare. 

But  no  record  has  been  kept  of  her  dam's  pedigree,  and  as  she 
was,  probably,  like  the  preceding  mare,  named  after  being  brought 
to  America,  it  seems  hopeless  to  attempt  to  verify  her  pedigree. 
Imported  by  Col.  Baylor. 

Jenny  Mills — By  Whisker,  dam  by  Cerberus,  her  dam  Miss  Graufield 
by  Sir  Peter,  Pegasus,  &c.  L.  J.  Polk,  Tenn. 

Jessica,  eh.  filly — Foaled  1832.  By  Velocipede,  dam  by  Sancho,  grand 
dam  Blacklock's  dam  by  Coriander,  g.  g.  d.  Wildgoose,  sister  to 
Hyperion  by  Highflyer. 

This  Sancho  mare  was  foaled  in  1810,  and  shot  after  producing 
this  chestnut  filly,  named  Jessica  after  importation. — See  Weath- 
erby, vol.  iv.,  p.  278. 

Kitty  Bull,  ch.  filly — Foaled  1796.  By  John  Bull,  dam  Isabella  by 
Eclipse,  grand  dam  by  Squirrel,  g.  g.  d.  Ancaster  Nancy  by 
Blank,  &c. 

Bred  by  Lord  G-rosvenor ;  sent  to  America. 
Vol.  I.— 32 


498  THE   HORSE. 

Kitty  Fisher,  gr.  m. — By  Cade,  dam  by  the  Cullen  Arabian  out  of 
the  famous  mare  Bald  Charlotte. 

The  history  of  this  mare  appears  to  be  perfectly  known  and 
authenticated.  She  was  bought  by  Mr.  Carter  Braxton  at  New- 
market, in  the  spring  of  1759,  being  then  the  property  of  Lord 
Granby,  and  standing  engaged  in  a  sweepstake  of  3,600  pounds  ster- 
ling, for  thi-ee-year-old  fillies.  Lord  Granby  being  abroad  in  the 
British  armies,  was  allowed  to  withdraw  himself  from  his  engage- 
ments, and  subsequently  sold  his  stock,  and  this  mare,  among  the 
rest,  to  Mr.  Braxton,  who  brought  her  to  Virginia,  where  she  ran 
well,  and  became  one  of  the  most  famous  broodmares  ever  imported 
to  this  country. 

There  can,  I  presume,  be  no  doubt  of  her  pedigree.  Yet  it  is 
remarkable  that,  so  far  as  it  appears,  Bald  Charlotte,  who  was 
undeniably  the  best  mare  of  her  day,  never  brought  a  foal  to  the 
Cullen  Arabian,  and  that  Kitty  Fisher's  own  name  is  not  to  be 
found  in  Pick  or  Weatherby. 

Bald  Charlotte  was  foaled  in  1721,  by  Old  Royal,  dam  by 
Brimmer.  She  was  a  winner  in  April,  1729,  probably  her  last 
race,  after  which  she  was  a  broodmare  in  the  Duke  of  Somerset's 
stable  until  1741. 

Her  stock  were, — 
In  1733,  a  bay  filly,  Chiddy  by  the  Hampton  Court  Arabian. 
"    173G,  a  bay  colt,  Cupid,  by  the  Somerset  Arabian. 
"       "      a  gr.  filly  by  the  Somerset  Arabian,  dam  of  Trooper  by 

Blank,  and 
"    1740,  a  ch.  colt  by  brother  to  Fearnought. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  she  must  have  produced  other  colts  and 
fillies,  for,  doubtless,  so  excellent  and  famous  a  mare  was  put 
yearly  to  the  most  fashionable  stallions,  but  it  is  strange  that  the 
rest  of  her  progeny  should  not  have  been  recorded. 
Lady  Bull,  bay  filly — Foaled  1796.  By  John  Bull,  dam  by  Pumpkin, 
grand  dam  by  Fleacatcher.  She  was  imported  into  Virginia  by 
Col.  Hoomes,  and  ran  in  America.  She  was  named  after  her 
arrival,  and  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  sister  of  the  mare 
last  named,  who  ran  in  England  as  Lady  Bull. 
Lady  Bunbury,  b.  filly — Foaled  1802.  By  Trumpator,  dam  Theopha 
by  Highflyer,  grand  dam  Plaything  by  Matchem,  g.  g.  d.  Vixen  by 
Regulus,  &c.  J.  Randolph. 

Lady  Fly — Foaled  1829.     By  Bustard,   out  of  Brown  Duchess  by 
Orville,  her  dam  Sagana  by  Sorcerer,  Woodpecker,  Herod,  &c. 

H.  Kirkman,  La. 


IMPOKTKT)    MARES    AND    FILLIES.  499 

Lady  Gr.,  meaning  Lady  GtASCoigne,  ch.  mare — Foaled  1804.  By  Ham- 
bletouiau,  dam  Goldenlocks  by  Delpini,  grand  dam  Violet  by  Shark, 
g.  g.  d.  by  Syphon,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Quick's  Charlotte  by  Blank,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d. 
by  Crab,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Dyer's  Dimple,  &c.,  &c. 

She  was  bred  by  Sir  Thomas  Gascoigne ;  covered,  in  1815,  by 
Benedick,  and  sent  to  Virginia. — Weatherby,  vol.  ii.,  p.  141. 

Lady  Grey,  gr.  filly — Foaled  1803.  By  Gohanna,  dam  Grey  Skin  by 
Woodpecker,  grand  dam  Silver's  dam  by  Herod,  g.  g.  d.  Young 
Hag  by  Skim,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Hag  by  Crab,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Young  Ebony 
by  Childers,  Old  Ebony  by  Basto,  Massy  mare,  &c. 

She  was  not  named  until  after  her  arrival,  and  must  not  be 
confounded  with  Lady  Grey  by  Stamford,  sister  to  Viscount, 

H.  W.  H. 

Lady  Mostyn,  br.  m. — Foaled  in  1831.  By  Teniers,  dam  Invalid  by 
Whisker,  grand  dam  Helen  by  Hambletouian,  g.  g.  d.  Susan  by 
Overton,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Drowsy  by  Drone,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Old  England 
mare.     Imported  by  F.  Corbyn,  of  Virginia. 

Lady  Scott,  br.  mare — By  Ardrossan,  dam  Dido  by  Viscount,  Brilliant 
by  Whiskey.  Mason's  Farrier,  B,.  D.  Shepherd. 

There  is  no  Dido  by  Viscount,  and  no  Brilliant  by  Whiskey  in 
any  of  the  books.  H,  W.  H. 

Lady  Sheffield — By  Recovery  out  of  Primrose.       Charleston,  S.  C. 

Langar  Filly — Foaled  1839.  By  Langar  out  of  Lady  Stafford's  dam 
by  Waxy,  &c.,  &c.     Imported,  1841,  by  J.  M.  Rouzan,  Louisiana. 

Langar  Filly,  bay  filly — Foaled  1839.  By  Langar,  dam  by  Waxy, 
grand  dam  Bizarre  by  Peruvian,  g.  g.  d.  Violante  by  John  Bull, 
g.  g.  g  d.  sister  to  Skyscraper  by  Highflyer.  The  Waxy  mare 
foaled  twin  fillies  to  Langar,  in  1832,  and  missed  to  him  in  1835. 
Imported  into  Louisiana  by  Rouzan  and  Duplantier. 

Langar  Filly — Foaled  1837  or  1838.  By  Langar,  dam  by  Blacklock, 
grand  dam  Marchesa  by  Comus,  g.  g.  d.  the  Colonel's  dam  by 
Delpini,  «fec.  &c. 

Langar  Filly — Foaled  1836.  By  Langar,  dam  by  Whisker  out  of 
Tramp's  dam  by  Gohanna,  Fraxinella  by  Trontham,  &c. 

CoL.  Singleton,  S.  G. 
Langar  Filly — Foaled  1836.     By  Langar  out  of  Balkan,  her  dam 
Miss  Fry  by  Walton,  out  of  Vourneen  by  Sorcerer,  &c. 

CoL.  W.  Hampton,  S.  G. 


600  THE    HORSE, 

Lapdoq  Filly — Foaled  1836.  By  Lapdog  out  of  Mischance,  by  Merlin, 
dam  by  Haphazard  out  of  Web,  &c.  Col.  Singleton,  S.  G. 

Likeness,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1834.  By  Sir  Peter  Lely,  dam  Worthless  by 
Walton,  grand  dam  Altisidora  by  Dick  Andrew,  g.  g.  d.  Mandane, 
&c.,  &c. 

Lily— Foaled  1834.     By  the  Colonel  out  of  Fleur-de-lis. 

CoL.  W.  Hampton,  S.  G. 

Lottery  Filly — Dam  by  Whisker,  grand  dam  by  Bay  Trophonius, 
g.  g.  d.  by  Slope  out  of  Lardella. 

Lucy — Foaled  1829.  By  Cain,  dam  by  Bustard,  her  dam  by  Walton, 
out  of  Gipsy  by  Guildford.  Col.  W.  Hampton,  8.  G. 

Madcap,  bay  filly — Foaled  1798.  By  Anvil,  dam  Madcap  by  Eclipse, 
grand  dam  by  Blank,  g.  g.  d.  Blaze,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Young  Greyhound, 
g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  Curwen  Bay  Barb. 

Maid  of  Wirral,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1833.  By  Battledore  out  of  Maid  of 
Lorn  by  Castrel,  her  dam  by  Richardson's  Marske,  Rockingham, 

Eclipse,  &c.  Capt.  Longford,  Ala. 

Malibran,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1830.  By  Muley,  son  of  Leviathan,  out  of 
Prima  Donna  by  Soothsayer,  Tippitiwitchct,  Camarine's  dam  by 
Waxy,  &c.  E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

Mambrino  Mare,  br.  m. — Foaled  1834.  By  Mambrino  out  of  Clink- 
erina,  by  Clinker,  out  of  Pewet  by  Tandem,  Termagant  by 
Tantrum,  &c.  Gharleston,  S.  G. 

Mameluke  Filly,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1834.  By  Mameluke  out  of  Bobadilla, 
Pythoness  by  Sorcerer,  out  of  Princess  by  Sir  Peter,  Dungan- 
non,  &c.  H.  Kirkman,  La. 

Mango,  ch.  filly. — Foaled  1836.  By  Taurus,  dam  Pickle  by  Emilius, 
grand  dam  Mustard  by  Merlin,  g.  g.  d.  Morel  by  Merkin,  Hornby 
Lass  by  Buzzard.  She  was  imported  in  her  dam's  belly  in  1835, 
and  has  won  in  America. 

Margravine,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1835.  By  Margrave,  dam  sister  to  Mem- 
non  by  Whisker,  grand  dam  Manuella  by  Dick  Andrews,  g.  g.  d. 
Mandane  by  Pot8os.  Imported  into  Louisiana,  in  1841,  by  J.  M. 
Rouzau. 

Maria  Black,  bi-.  m. — Foaled  1834.     By  Filho  da  Puta,  dam  by  Smo- 

lensko,  grand  dam  by  Sir  Peter,  g.  g.  d.  by  Mambrino,  &c.,  &c. 

Has  won  m  America. — Mason's  Farrier.   Weatherby. 


BIPOETED    MA.EES    AND    FILLIES.  501 

Memnon  Make — Foaled  1833.     By  Memnon  out  of  Eleanor,  &c.,  &c. 

Charleston,  8.  G. 

Meechant  Filly,  S.  F.-^Foaled  1835.  By  Merchant,  out  of  Mad- 
elina  by  Cervantes ;  her  dam  Mary  by  Sir  Peter,  Diomed,  Desde- 
mona  by  Marske,  &c.,  &c.  J.  Routh,  Tenn. 

Miranda,  b.  m. — Foaled  1827.  By  Woful,  dam  by  Beningborough,  grand 
dam  Blaeklock's  dam  by  Coriander,  g.  g.  d.  Wildgoose  by  High- 
flyer, g.  g.  g.  d.  Coheiress  by  PotSos.     Imported  into  Alabama. 

E.  H.  Boardman. 

Miss  Accident,  b.  m. — By  Tramp,  dam  Florestine  by  Whisker,  &e. 

Miss  Andrews,  b.  m. — Foaled  1826.  By  Catton,  dam  by  Dick  Andrews, 
grand  dam  by  Sir  Peter.  Sold  to  go  to  America  with  her  foal  by 
Humphry  Clinker,  in  1835.  Imported  by  Messrs.  Clay,  Ken- 
tucky, 1841. 

Miss  Bell — By  Othello,  dam  of  Dongolah,  &c.  Imported  into  South 
Carolina,  1783-4. 

Miss  CoLviLLE — Dam  of  Spark.  This  mare  is  said  to  have  been  the 
Old  Wilke's  mare  by  Hautboy,  and  to  have  been  imported  by  Col. 
Colville,  though  I  can  find  no  evidence  that  that  mare  was  ever 
imported.  Edgar's  Stud  Book,  p.  58. 

Miss  Clinker,  b.  m. — By  Humphry  Clinker,  dam  Maria  by  Maniac,  &c. 

Miss  GrOLBOURNE,  br.  m. — Foaled  1831.  By  Lottery  out  of  The  Nun, 
by  Blacklock,  grand  dam  by  Whisker,  Orville,  &c. 

E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

Miss  Rose,  b.  m. — Foaled  1826.  By  Tramp,  dam  by  Sancho,  grand 
dam  by  Coriander,  &c. 

Miss  West,  sister  to  Teniers — Foaled  1822.  By  Rubens  out  of  Snow- 
drop by  Highland  Fling,  out  of  Daisy  by  Buzzard,  &c. 

Messrs.  Ogden  and  Corbin. 

MoLL  Brazen — By  Spark,  dam  by  Torismond,  grand  dam  by  Second 
brother  to  Snip,  g.  g.  d.  by  Mogul  brother  to  Babraham,  &c. 

Moll  in  the  Wad,  b.  m. — Foaled  1797.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  dam 
the  famous  j^ellow  mare  by  Tandem,  &c.,  &c.       J.  Tayloe,  Va. 

Molly  Pacolet — By  Pacolet,  dam  by  Old  Spark,  grand  dam  Queen 
Mab,  &c.,  &c.  Gr.  Yanderveer. 

Mulatto  Filly  Foal,  b.  f.  f.— Foaled  1836.  By  Mulatto  out  of  Flor- 
estine, &C.,  &C.  H.  KiRKMAN,  La. 


502  THE    HOKSE. 

Mulatto  Filly,  b.  f. — Foaled  1835.  By  Mulatto  out  of  Octavia  by 
Tramp,  her  dam  Octavia  by  Walton,  Marcia  by  Coriander,  Faith, 
Pacolet — Atalanta.  Col.  Singleton,  /6'.  C. 

Mulatto  Filly,  b.  f.— Foaled  1838.  By  Mulatto,  out  of  Oliuda  by 
the  Colonel,  her  dam  Linda  by  Waterloo,  grand  dam  Cressida, 
sister  to  Eleanor,  by  Whiskey  out  of  Young  Giantess.  Mulatto 
was  by  Catton,  out  of  Desdemona  by  Orville.    Charleston^  S.  C 

MuLEY  MoLOCK  FiLLY  FoAL,  ch.  f.  f — Foalod  1842.  By  Muley  MoIock, 
out  of  a  Champion,  ch.,  mare.  Louisiana. 

Nameless,  b.  m. — Foaled  1825.  By  Filho  da  Puta,  by  Haphazard,  out 
of  Miss  Barnet,  her  dam  Rosetta  by  Young  Woodpecker,  Dungan- 
non.  Justice,  &c.  Cuas.  Green,  N.  Y. 

Nancy  Bywell,  b.  m. — By  Matchem,  dam  by  Goliah,  Red  Rose,  Cur- 
wen,  Old  Spot,  &c. 

Nanny  Kiliiam,  b.  f. — Foaled  1834.  By  Voltaire  out  of  the  dam  of 
Bolus,  by  Comus,  grand  dam  Lisette,  by  Hambletouian,  Constantia 
by  Walnut,  &c.  Louisiana. 

Nell  Gwynne — By  Tramp,  dam  by  Beuingborough,  &c.,  &c. 

Netty,  ch.  m. — Velocipede,  dam  Miss  Rose,  &c.,  &c. 

Novelty — By  Blacklock,  dam  Washerwoman,  by  Walton,  &c.,  &c. 

Olympus  Filly,  b.  f. — Foaled  1838.  Dam  by  Bustard,  grand  dam 
Gen.  Mina's  dam  by  Williamson's  ditto,  g.  g.  d.  Young  Rachel  by 
Volunteer,  g.  g.  g.  d.  Rachel — sister  to  Maid  of  All  Work — by 
Highflyer,  Olympus  was  by  Blacklock  out  of  Michaelmas. 

Olympus  Filly,  br.  f — Foaled  1835.  By  Olympus  out  of  Sarah,  by 
Whisker ;  her  dam  Jenny  Wren,  by  Y.  Woodpecker ;  her  dam 
Lady  Cow,  by  John  Bull,  Drone,  Lardella,  by  Y.  Marske,  &c. 

Capt.  Longford,  Ala. 

Olympus  Mare,  b.  m. — Foaled  1833.  By  Olympus  out  of  Caifacarata- 
daddera,  by  Walton,  grand  dam  by  Pipator,  Delpini,  Herod,  &c.) 
&c.  E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

Only  That,  b.  m. — Foaled  1830.  By  Partisan  out  of  Scribe,  by  Woful 
out  of  Scratch — sister  to  Scandal — dam  of  Tam-o'-Shanter,  Scuffle, 
Scurry,  Splinter,  &c.,  by  Selim,  her  dam  by  Haphazard,  Precipi- 
tate, Colibri,  by  Woodpecker,  Camilla,  &c.  Tennessee. 

Orville  Mare — Dam  by  Trumpator,  grand  dam  Hoity  Toity  by  High- 
flyer, &c.,  &c. 


IMPOK'l'ED    MARES    AND    FILLIES.  503 

Pacolet  Mare — By  Pacolet,  dam  Whiteneck  by  Crab,  Godolpliin  Ara- 
bian, Conyer's  Arabian,  &e.  Pennsylvariia. 

Partisan  Mare,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1829.  By  Partisan  out  of  Filagree, 
by  Soothsayer,  &g.  Col.  Singleton,  S.  C. 

Partridge,  cb.  f. — Foaled  1837.  By  Langar,  out  of  Annofc  Lyle,  by 
Ashton,  grand  dam  Lamia,  by  Grobanna ;  Certbia  by  Woodpecker, 
&c.,  &c.  Louisiana. 

Peggy — Foaled  1788.  By  Trumpator,  dam  by  Herod  out  of  Peggy — 
sister  to  Postmaster,  &c.,  &c.  J.  Tayloe,  Va. 

Penelope,  ch.  m. — By  Plenipo,  dam  Brazil  by  Ivanhoe,  &c.,  &c. 

Philadelphia,  b.  m. — By  Washington,  dam  Miss  Totteridge  by  Dun- 
gannon,  Marcella  by  Mambrino,  Media  by  Sweetbrier,  Angelica  by 
Snap.  J.  Kandolph,  1808. 

Pirouette,  ch.  £ — By  Teniers,  dam  Mercandotti  by  Muley,  &c. 

Placentia,  f.  f. — Foaled  1813.  By  Dick  Andrews,  out  of  Azalia  by 
Beningborough,  grand  dam  Gilliflower.  by  Highflyer,  g.  g.  d.  by 
Goldfinder,  g.  g.  g.  d.  sister  to  Grrasshopper,  by  Marske. 

She  was  imported  from  Gibraltar,  and  was  sold  to  Mr.  C.  H. 
Hall,  of  New  York,  in  whose  hands  she  died  in  1821,  having  pro- 
duced one  colt.  Mountaineer,  by  Duroc. 

MS.  Notes,  by  C.  H.  Hall. 

Pledge — By  Filho  da  Puta,  out  of  Deposit's  dam,  by  Comus,  out  of 
Sister  to  Zodiac,  by  St.  George,  Abigail  by  Woodpecker,  &c.,  &c. 

L.  L.  Polk,  Tennessee. 

Plenty,  br.  m. — Foaled  1822.  By  Emilius  out  of  Mangel  Wurzel,  by 
Merlin  out  of  Morel,  by  Sorcerer,  &c,       E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

Pomona,  b.  m. — By  Worthy — own  brother  to  Waxy — dam  Comedy   by 

Buzzard,  her  dam  by  Highflyer,  &c.  Peter shurg,  Va 

Possession — By  Bay  Malton,  out  of  Polly  Oliver,  &c. 

E.  H.  Boardman. 
Pot8os  Mare— Foaled  1792.     By  Old  Medley,   dam  by   Conductor, 

grand  dam  by  Celer,  &c.  W.  Constable. 

Priam  Filly,  s.  f — By  Priam  out  of  Delphine,  by  Whisker,  &c. 

Ogden  and  Corbin. 

Priam  Filly,  b.  f — Foaled  1836.  By  Priam  out  of  Malibran,  by 
Rubens,  out  of  Bolter's  dam,  by  Trumpator,  &c. 

Col.  Singleton,  S.  C. 


504  THE    HOKSE. 

Priam  Filly,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1836.  By  Priam  out  of  Betsy  Ransom, 
&c.  R.  L.  Stevens,  N.  Y. 

Pkima — By  Priam  out  of  Dahlia,  &c.  Charleston,  S.  C. 

Primrose — By  Comus,  out  of  Cowslip  by  Cockfigliter,  her  dam  Brown 
Javelin  by  Javelin,  out  of  Young  Maiden,  &c.  &c. 

L.  J.  Polk,  Tennessee. 

Promise,  ch.  m. — By  Buzzard  out  of  a  Precipitate  mare,  the  dam  of 
Wizard,  her  dam  out  of  Lady  Harriet,  by  Mark  Anthony,  &c. 

Wm.  Haxall. 
Prunella — By  Comus,  dam  by  Partisan,  &c.,  &c. 

Psyche,  gr.  m.— Foaled  1802.  By  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  dam  Bab  by 
Bordeaux  out  of  Speranza,  own  sister  to  Saltram  by  Eclipse,  Snap, 
&c.  Gen.  McPuerson,  ;S'.  C. 

Punchinella — By  Punch,  dam  by  Craig's  Highflyer,  of  Tattersall's, 
grand  dam  by  Galloway's  Selim,  &c.  Imported  into  the  district 
of  Columbia,  1808. 

Queen  Anne,  bl.  m. — By  Camel,  dam  by  Langar. 

Queen  Mab — By  Musgrove's  Grey  Arabian,  dam  Harrison's  Arabian 
grand  dam  by  his  chestnut  Arabian  Leeds,  &c.  Gov.  Ogle. 

Rachel,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1829.  By  Partisan  out  of  Filagree,  by  Sooth- 
sayer ;  Web  by  Waxy ;  Penelope  by  Trumpator,  &c.  &c. 

E.  H.  Boardman. 

Recovery  Filly,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1837.  By  Recovery  out  of  Primrose,  &c. 

L.  J.  Polk,  Tenn. 

Recovery  Filly  Foal — Foaled  1838.  By  Recovery  out  of  Sally  of 
the  Valley,  &c.  R.  D.  Shepherd,  La. 

Rhodora,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1835.  By  Felt,  dam  Roseleaf  by  Whisker, 
grand  dam  Rosabella  by  Milo,  g.  g.  d.  by  Rubens,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by 
Buzzard,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Alexander,  g.  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Highflyer. 

Ringlet,  b.  f. — Foaled  1834.  By  the  Colonel,  dam  Adeline  by  Sooth- 
sayer, Elizabeth  by  Orville,  Penny  Trumpet  by  Trumpator,  &c.,  &c. 

A.  J.  Davie,  N.  C. 

Rosalind — Foaled  1829.  Sister  to  King  Cole,  by  Paulowitz  out  of 
Isidora  by  Blucher,  out  of  Zora  by  Selim,  Zoraida  by  Don  Quixotte, 
Lady  Cow  by  John  Bull,  &c.,  &c.  Ogden  and  Corbin. 

Ruler  Mare — ^By  Ruler,  dam  by  Turk,  he  by  Regulus,  grand  dam  by 
Snake,  &g. 


IMPORTED   MAEES   AND   FILLIES.  505 

Sally  of  the  Valley,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1825,  By  Tramp  out  of  the 
Sancho  mare,  her  dam  Blackloek's  dam,  by  Coriander  out  of  Wild 
Goose,  sister  to  Hyperion  by  Highflyer.  Louisiana. 

Sandbeck  Mare,  b.  m. — Foaled  1834.  Out  of  Ursula  by  Cervantes, 
Fanny  by  Sir  Peter,  Diomed,  &c.,  &c.      E.  H.  BoardmIn,  Ala. 

Selima,  Tasker's. — Foaled  1772.  By  the  Glodolphin  Arabian,  dam  by 
Old  Fox,  Flying  Childers,  &c. 

The  other  story  is,  daughter  of  the  large  Hartley  Mare.  There 
is  no  earthly  doubt  of  the  character  of  her  blood,  though  it  cannot 
be  clearly  traced.  H.  W.  H. 

Septima — By  Othello,  dam  Moll  Brazen  by  Shark,  &c. 

Shepherdess — Foaled  1835.  By  T.  Blacklock  out  of  Spermaceti,  by 
Sligo  Waxy  out  of  Miss  Cogden  by  Phenomenon. 

Silver — Foaled  about  1762.  Grot  by  the  Belsize  Arabian,  her  dam  by 
Croft's  Partner,  grand  dam  full  sister  to  Roxana  by  the  Bald 
Galloway,  her  dam  full  sister  to  the  Acaster  Turk,  g.  g.  g.  d.  by 
the  Leeds  Arabian,  g.  g.  g.  g.  d.  by  Spanker  out  of  a  natural 
Arabian  mare. 

This  absurd  pedigree  from  Edgar's  Stud  Book,  is  signed,  Wm. 
Evans,  Louisville,  N.  C,  Aug.  11,  1840.  On  its  face  it  is,  prob- 
ably, the  stupidest  and  most  impudent  forgery  that  ever  was 
written ;  since  the  full  sister  to  the  Acaster  Turk,  if  ever  such  an 
animal  existed,  must  have  been  a  pure  Turk,  and  not  the  daughter 
of  the  Leeds  Arabian  out  of  an  English  mare.  H.  W.  H. 

Sir  Peter  Lely  Mare,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1833.  Out  of  Clinton's  dam 
by  Comus,  Camillus,  Delpini,  &c.,  &c.       E.  H.  Boardmax,  Ala. 

Statira,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1809.  By  Alexander  the  Great,  sister  to 
Lycurgus  by  Buzzard,  Rose  by  Sweetbrier,  Merleton  by  Snap, 
&c.,  &c.  J.  Randolph. 

St.  Nicholas  Filly,  br.  f — Foaled  1834.  By  St.  Nicholas  out  of 
Mysinda  by  Lottery,  her  dam  Columbine  by  Cervantes,  Flora  by 
Camillus,  Ruler,  Woodpecker,  &c.  Charleston,  S.  C. 

Stumps  Filly,  gr.  f — Foaled  1836.  By  Stumps  out  of  Variella,  by 
Blacklock,  her  dam  by  Phantom,  Overton,  Walnut,  &c.,  &c. 

L.  J.  Polk,  Tenn. 

Sultan  Filly,  br.  f. — By  Sultan  out  of  Rachel,  sister  to  Moses,  out  of 
Seymour  of  Whalebone,  &c.,  &c.  Ogden  and  Corbin. 

Sylphide,  b.  m. — By  Emilius,  dam  Polly  Hopkins  by  Virginian,  &c. 


506  TUE    HORSE. 

Tears— Foaled  1823.  By  Woful,  out  of  Miss  Stephenson  by  Scud  or 
Sorcerer,  &c. 

Sold  to  Col.  Hampton,  in  1835,  with  her  foal  Sorrow,  and  in 
foal  to  Defence. 

Teniers  Mare,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1838.  By  Teniers,  out  of  Cora  by 
Peruvian,  Alexander,  &c.,  &c.  E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

TiTSY,  ch.  m. — Foaled  1832.  By  Langar,  out  of  Zephyrina  by  Middle- 
thorpe,  out  of  Pagoda  by  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  &c.,  &c. 

Louisiana. 

The  Queen,  ch.  m. — By  Priam,  dam  Delphine  by  Whisker.  See  Priam, 
ch.  f.,  above. 

Tom  Boy  Filly  Foal,  br.  f.— Foaled  1837.  Dam  by  Wanton  or  Don 
Juan,  grand  dam  Rembrandt  Mare,  Beatrice  by  Sir  Peter,  &c.,  &c 

Louisiana. 
Tramp  Filly — Foaled  1835.     By  Tramp,  out  of  Marchesa  by  Comus, 
her  dam  by  Delpini  out  of  Tipple  Cider  by  King  Fergus,  Sylvan 
by  Marske.  J.  Routh,  Miss. 

Tranby  Filly,  br.  f. — Foaled  1834.  By  Tranby,  dam  by  Whalebone,  &c. 

Charleston,  S.  C. 
Trifle.     See  Filho  da  Puta  Mare,  dam  sister  to  Spartan,  above,  &c. 

Trinket,  ch.  m. — By  Godolphin,  out  of  Filagree  by  Soothsayer,  her  dam 
Web,  &c.,  &c.  L.  J.  Polk,  Tenn. 

Trumpetta,  b.  m. — Foaled  1797.  By  Trumpator,  dam  by  Highflyer, 
grand  dam  by  Eclipse  out  of  Vauxhall's  dam,  who  was  by  Young 
Cade.  J.  Tayloe,  Va. 

TcLip,  ch.  f. — Foaled  1835.  By  St.  Patrick,  dam  Manca  by  Merlin, 
Specie  by  Scud,  Quail  by  Grohanna,  Certhia  by  Woodpecker, 
&c.,  &c.  A.  J.  Davie,  N.  G. 

Vaga — Foaled  1822.  By  Lismahago,  dam  Lady  Byron  by  Sir  Ulic, 
Dungannon,  Miss  Euston  by  Snap.  Ogden  and  Corbin. 

Vamp,  br.  m. — Foaled  1825.  By  Langar  out  of  Wire,  sister  to  Whisker, 
&c.,  by  Waxy,  Penelope  by  Trumpator,  Prunella  by  Highflyer, 
&c.,  &c.  E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

Variella,  b.  m. — By  Blacklock,  dam  by  Phantom,  her  dam  by  Overton 
out  of  Gratitude's  dam  by  Walnut,  &c.  J.  L.  Polk,  Tenn. 

Velocipede  Mare,  gr.  m. — Foaled  1833.  By  Velocipede,  dam  by 
Minos  out  of  Aquila  by  Eagle,  her  dam  by  Precipitate,  Wood- 
pecker, &c.  Charleston,  S.  C. 


IMPORTED   MARES    AND   FILLIES.  507 

Victoria,  br.  f.— Foaled  1834.  Out  of  Polly  Oliver  by  Sir  Oliver,  her 
dam  by  Hambletonian,  &c. 

Virago — By  Star,  dam  Virago  by  Panton's  Arabian  out  of  Crazy  by 
Lath,  who  was  sister  to  Snip,  &c.  Virginia. 

Volant,  b.  m. — Foaled  1833.  By  Velocity  out  of  Charity  by  Tramp, 
out  of  Euphrosyne's  dam  by  Shuttle,  Drone,  &c.,  &c. 

J.  RouTH,  Natchez,  Miss. 

VoLANTE — Foaled  1797.  By  Volunteer,  dam  Lava  by  Sulphur,  grand 
dam  Maria  by  Blank,  Snip,  Lath,  &c.  J.  Hoomes. 

Williamson's  Ditto  Mare,  b.  m. — Foaled  1822.  By  Williamson's 
Ditto,  dam  by  Trumpator,  Countess  by  Sir  Peter  Teazle,  Fame  by 
Pantaloon,  Diomed's  dam,  &c.,  &c.  E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 

WoFUL  Mare— Foaled  1824.  By  Woful,  out  of  Allegretta  by  Trump- 
ator, grand  dam  Young  Camilla  by  Woodpecker,  &c. 

E.  H.  Boardman,  Ala. 


TABLE    OF    STOCK, 

OF    FOEEIGN    AND    J^ATIYE    SIEES. 


WINNING  HORSES  FROM  AUG.  1829  TO  DEC.  1830.f 


BY  IMPORTED  SIKES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

.5 

n 

1 

<» 

Stallions. 

a 

t 

s 

n 

^ 

M 

1 

_L 

1 

Bedford, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Arab,* 

4 

4 

9 

11 

Roman, 

2 

3 

6 

8 

Arabian,  Jones, 

Aratus, 

Bcrtrand,* 

Carolinian,* 

Chance, 

Cherokee,* 

Childers,* 

Columbus, 

Conqueror, 

Contention,* 

Democrat, 

Duroc, 

1 
1 
1 
3 
1 
3 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
3 

1 
1 
1 

1 
3 
1 
1 
2 
1 
1 
6 

1 

14 

4 

6 

4 
4 

3 
11 

2 
6 
2 

20 
4 
8 
2 
4 
4 
6 
3 

22 

American  Eclipse, 

9 

16 

31 

80 

Hamiltonian,* 

1 

1 

5 

5 

Henry,* 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Hickory, 

1 

3 

6 

20 

John  Richards,* 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Kosciusko,* 

8 

11 

36 

66 

Napoleon,* 

2 

2 

5 

12 

Orphan, 

1 

2 

6 

6 

Oscar, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Oscar  of  Tennessee, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Pacolet, 

1 

1 

6 

Palafox, 

3 

3 

7 

15 

Potomac, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Rattler,* 

9 

11 

24 

65 

Rob  Roy, 

3 

7 

17 

29 

t  This,  and  the  following  tables,  are  compiled  from  the  American  Turf  Register. 

*  This  mark,  attached  to  the  name  of  the  sire,  indicates  a  son  of  the  celebrated  Sir  Archy, 
•who  stands  to  the  American  turf  in  the  same  light  as  the  Godolphin  Arabian  to  the  English  tarf 
Scarcely  any  great  winner  but  in  some  degree  shares  his  blood.— H.  W.  H. 


TABLE   OF    STOCK.  509 

WINNING  HORSES  FE05I  AUG.  1829  TO  DEC.  1830— Continued. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

S 

a 
a 

1 

1 

Stallions. 

2 

c 

1 

1 

1 

Sir  Archy,* 

Sir  Charles,* 

Sir  Hal,* 

Sir  Solomon, 

Sir  William,* 

Sir  Walter, 

Shawnee,* 

Stockholder,* 

Sumpter,* 

Timoleon,* 

Tuckahoe, 

Virginian,* 

Washington, 

Whipster, 

11 
11 
4 
1 
4 
1 
1 
4 

s 

4 
2 
9 
3 

1 

35 
38 
1 
2 
1 
1 
1 
4 
3 
6 
9 
26 
4 
1 

11 
89 
12 

3 
10 

2 

7 

8 

14 

18 

55 

8 

3 

176 

183 

25 

12 

27 

4 

4 

9 

12 

27 

64 

137i 

18 

6 

2 

3 

4 

« 

10 

42 

137 

234 

539 

11041 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1831. 

BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

2 

a 
a 

m 

tS 

1 

2 
Stallions.             1   g 

1 

1 

1 

Roman, 

• 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Arab* 

Aratus, 

Bertrand,* 

Bennehan's  Archy,* 

Bucephalus, 

Carolinian,* 

Cherokee,* 

Contention,* 

Consul, 

Eclipse,  American, 

GaUatin, 

Hal, 

Henry,* 

Jackson,* 

Kosciusko,* 

Marshal  Ney, 

Darrington's, 
Muckle  John,* 
Xapoleon,* 
O.scar  of  Tennessee, 

2 
1 
2 
1 
2 
2 
1 
2 
1 
6 
1 
1 
3 
1 
4 

1 

1 
3 
1 

2 

1 
2 
1 
2 
3 
1 
2 
1 
5 
1 
1 
4 
1 
5 

1 

1 
3 
1 

4 
3 
5 
2 
4 
7 
2 
5 
2 

10 
2 
2 

10 
2 

12 
2 

2 
8 
3 

4 
6 
8 

8 

15 
6 
5 
6 

15 
2 
2 

21 
4 

36 

2 

4 

20 

6 

•  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


610 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1831— Continued. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

2 

g 

a 

i 

s 

Stallions. 

2 

a 

1 

1 

1 

Pacolet, 

Palafox, 

Rattler,* 

Roanoke,* 

Sertorius, 

Sir  Archy,* 

Sir  Charles,* 

Sir  Hal,* 

Shylock, 

Shawnee,* 

St.  Tammany, 

Stockholder,* 

Sumpter,* 

Timoleon,* 

Tormentor, 

Virginian,* 

Washington, 

1 

2 

2 
1 

1 
12 
10 

2 

1 
1 

4 
4 
2 
1 
6 

1 
3 
2 
1 
1 
15 
19 
2 
1 
1 
4 
4 
5 
2 
1 

5 

2 
5 
4 
2 
2 
45 
46 
5 

2 

7 

8 

16 

3 

3 

16 

12 

6 

5 

8 

2 

4 

94 

118 

8 

8 

4 

11 

26 

18 

7 

3 

44 

23 

1 

1 

1 

2 

4 

36 

90 

112 

267 

561 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1831  TO  SEPT.  1832. 

BY  IMPOETED  8IKES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

i 

K 

1 

a 

1 

Stallions. 

a 

1 

1 

1 

Alexander, 

Bcrtrand,* 

Blind  Duroc, 

Carolinian,* 

Cherokee,* 

Chesterfield, 

Clifton, 

Conqueror, 

Contention,* 

Crusher,* 

Duroc, 

Director,* 

Eclipse,  Am., 

Gallatin, 

Gohanna,* 

Hephestion, 

Henry,* 

1 
6 
1 
3 
1 
1 
1 
1 
3 
2 
1 
2 
14 
1 
3 

3 

1 

9 
1 
3 
2 

1 
1 
1 
3 
2 
1 
5 
22 
"l 
4 
2 
3 

5 

20 

2 

13 

4 

2 

5 

2 

•  6 

5 

5 

12 

65 

2 

8 

5 

5 

5 

55 

2 

32 

16 

2 

6 

2 

14 

10 

6 

24 

135 

8 

8 

7 

10 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF   STOCK.  511 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1831  TO  SEPT.  \%Z2— Continued. 


BY  IMPOETED  8IKES. 

BT  NATIVE  SIEES. 

i 

£ 

Stallions. 

a 

1 

W 

1 

StaUions. 

1 

M 

1 

J 

John  Richards,* 

6 

9 

24 

49 

Kosciusko,* 

2 

3 

9 

11 

Marion,* 

1 

1 

2 

8 

Marylander, 

2 

3 

8 

17 

Mons.  Tonson, 

3 

3 

5 

5 

Mercury,* 

3 

5 

12 

14 

Muckle  John,* 

2 

3 

9 

22 

Neale's  Archy, 

1 

3 

3 

Napoleon,* 

1 

2 

2 

Oscar, 

2 

6 

9 

Orphan  Boy, 

1 

3 

6 

Pacific,* 

2 

5 

5 

Pacolet, 

4 

10 

22 

Phenomenon, 

1 

2 

6 

Prizefighter, 

1 

3 

9 

Rattler,* 

5 

11 

21 

Reliance, 

1 

2 

4 

Rob  Roy, 

11 

33 

70 

Sertorius, 

2 

6 

5 

Silver  Heels, 

1 

2 

4 

Sir  Archy,* 

15 

26 

62 

126 

Sir  Charles,* 

18 

43 

106 

280 

Sir  Hal,* 

o 

6 

11 

21 

Sir  Andrew, 

1 

2 

4 

Sir  William,* 

8 

17 

36 

Sir  Walter, 

1 

2 

Saxe  Weimar,* 

8 

7 

9 

Sea  Gull,* 

1 

1 

1 

Sumpter,* 

3 

6 

18 

Shawnee,* 

1 

2 

4 

Stockholder,* 

10 

23 

44 

Tarifif,* 

1 

2 

2 

Timoleon,* 

9 

19 

19 

Troup, 

1 

2 

6 

Tuckahoe, 

6 

17 

37 

Virginian,* 

10 

22 

42i 

Washington, 

2 

4 

4 

Windflower, 

2 

5 

7 

Whipster, 

2 

5 

5 

Young  Sir  Archy,* 

1 

2 

2 

Young  Archibald, 

1 

2 

4 

58 

172 

263 

631 

13151 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 

512  TABLE    OF    STOCK, 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1832  TO  SEPT.  1833. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIliES. 

BY  NATIVE  8IEES. 

Stallions. 

i 

s 

<2 

1 

Stallions. 

i 

t 

C3 

« 

1 

M 

a 

1 

i 

1 

41 

1 

Bussorah  Arabian, 

1 

2 

3 

3 

Arab,* 

7 

10 

22 

30 

Truffle, 

1 

2 

4 

12 

Aratus, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Valentine, 

1 

2 

3 

6 

Bortrand,* 

11 

20 

3G 

89 

Black  Warrior, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Bostick's  Gallatin, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Carolinian,* 

2 

3 

9 

15 

Cherokee,* 

2 

2 

4 

8 

Clifton, 

1 

5 

13 

30 

Chesterfield, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Childers,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Contention,* 

4 

6 

15 

20 

Constitution, 

2 

2 

7 

11 

Conqueror, 

1 

1 

6 

0 

Cornwallis, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Crusher,* 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Diomed, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Diomed, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Director,* 

2 

3 

12 

28 

Eclipse, 

13 

22 

60 

169 

Gallatin, 

1 

1 

7 

7 

Gohanna,* 

5 

9 

23 

43 

Henry,* 

3 

3 

5 

12 

Irishman, 

1 

1 

„ 

2 

John  Richards,* 

3 

5 

15 

36 

Kosciusko,* 

2 

6 

15 

32 

Little  Pacolet, 

1 

1 

2 

Logan,* 

1 

2 

3 

3 

Marion,* 

3 

5 

10 

14 

Marshal  Ney, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Maryland  Eclipse, 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Marylander, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Marquis, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Mason's  Rattler, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Medley, 

3 

5 

10 

13 

Mercury,* 

1 

2 

4 

8 

Mons.  Tonson, 

8 

9 

18 

24 

Muckle  John,* 

3 

7 

14 

40 

Napoleon,* 

4 

4 

14 

19 

Pacific,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Palafox, 

1 

1 

2 

8 

Phenomenon, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Powhattan, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Rattler,* 

6 

9 

24 

37 

Regulus, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Rinaldo,* 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Rob  Roy, 

2 

3 

8 

14 

Saxe  Weimar,* 

2 

4 

8 

10 

Sea  Gull,* 

2 

2 

8 

9 

Sharpens  Timoleon, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Shawnee,* 

^ 

Lil 

9 

25 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF   STOCK.  513 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1832  TO  SEPT.  l8dS— Continued. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

1 

Stallions. 

a 

ai 

1 

-2 

1 

Sir  Alfred, 

1 

2 

5 

17 

Sir  Andrew, 

3 

5 

13 

20 

Sir  Archy,* 

12 

15 

34 

54 

Sir  Cliarles,* 

12 

23 

59 

167 

Sir  Hal,* 

3 

4 

9 

11 

Sir  James,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Sir  John  Falstaff, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Sir  William,* 

7 

8 

18 

34 

Sir  William,* 

2 

3 

4 

15 

Snowstorm, 

2 

3 

10 

10 

Sumpter,* 

6 

7 

16 

21 

Stockholder,* 

7 

9 

17 

35 

Tariff,* 

4 

4 

10 

12 

Timoleon,* 

9 

11 

21 

25 

Tom  Tough, 

1 

2 

9 

12 

Tormentor, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Tuckahoe, 

2 

5 

12 

42 

Van  Tromp, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Virginian,* 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Washington, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Whip, 

2 

2 

8 

12 

3 

3 

6 

10 

21 

71 

199 

288 

677 

1319 

WINNING  HORSES  F 

ROM 

SEPT.  1833  TO  SEPT.  1834 

BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

1 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES 

Stallions. 

a 

i 

1 

«• 

Stallions. 

1 

t 

S 

1 

^ 

1 

w 

i 

1 

W 

i 

Truffle, 

1 

2 

4 

12 

Almanzor, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Valentine, 

1 

1 

3 

12 

Arab,* 

6 

7 

20 

39 

Young  Truffle, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Aratus, 

2 

2 

6 

15 

Aulphin, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Bertrand,* 

15 

21 

52 

120 

Bolivar, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Brunswick, 

1 

2 

5 

5 

Carolinian,* 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Childers,* 

2 

2 

6 

6 

Citizen, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Combination, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

. 

Conqueror, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Contention,* 

2 

7 

19 

52 

Vol.  I.— 33 


Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


514  TABLE   OF   STOCK. 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1833  TO  SEPT.  ISZ^i— Continued. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

2 

^ 

1 

Stallions. 

2 

a 

i 

Heats. 
Miles. 

Cornwallis, 

1 

1 

2i       4 

Crusader,* 

3 

3 

8 

13 

Director,* 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Eclipse, 

8 

11 

26 

68 

Eclipse  Lightfoot, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Florizel, 

3 

3 

7 

18 

Frantic, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Gohanna,* 

4 

1 

13 

40 

Henry,* 

5 

1 

19 

36 

Hephestion, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Hotspur, 

2 

2 

6 

8 

Jackson,* 

2 

2 

6 

6 

Janus,* 

3 

4 

8 

12 

Jerry, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

John  Dawson, 

1 

2 

4 

6 

John  Richards,* 

2 

3 

6 

12 

John  Stanley, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Kosciusko,* 

4 

5 

12 

18 

Logan,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Long's  Marion, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Marion,* 

2 

2 

5 

7 

Marquis, 

1 

1 

4 

8 

Marylander, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Maryland  Eclipse, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

McDuffie, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Medley, 

8 

10 

21 

38 

Mercury,* 

4 

8 

16 

31 

Merlin,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Mons.  Tonson, 

22 

28 

71 

143 

Muckle  John,* 

3 

8 

18 

45 

Napoleon,* 

2 

3 

5 

8 

North  Carohnian, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Oscar, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Pacific,* 

3 

4 

8 

16 

Pacolet, 

2 

2 

4 

6 

Phenomenon, 

3 

3 

5 

9 

Potomac, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Rattler,* 

5 

7 

15 

31 

Reliance, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Reyburn's  Conten-  ) 
tion,                      ) 

1 

1 

^ 

4 

Rifleman, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Rob  Roy, 

2 

4 

9 

25 

Rockingham, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Saxe  Weimar,* 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Shakspeare, 

3 

6 

17 

29 

Sharpens  Timoleon, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Shawnee,* 

3 

8 

14 

29 

Sir  Alfred, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Sir  Andrew, 

3 

7 

14 

40 

'  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF    STO(^K.  515 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1833  TO  SEPT.  18^4.— Continued. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

BT  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

1 

4 

a 

.2 

Stallions. 

i 

1 

K 

1 
1 

Sir  Archy,* 
Sir  Archv  Montorio,* 
Sir  Charles,* 
Sir  George, 
Sir  Peter  Teazle, 
Sir  William,* 
Sir  Richard, 
'Snowstorm, 
Spectre,  Eng., 
[Stockholder,* 
Sumpter,* 
Tariff,* 

Thornton's  Rattler, 
Thomas'  Sir  Andrew, 
Timoleon,* 
Volunteer, 
Washington, 

12 
2 

7 
1 
1 
6 
2 

I 

1 
8 
12 
3 
1 
1 
4 
1 
1 

18 
2 

18 
1 
1 
9 
2 
1 
1 

14 

11 
4 
1 
1 
4 
1 
2 

40 
5 

42 
2 
8 

21 

31 
36 
10 

12 
5 

95 

12 

109 

2 

9 

38 

10 

2 

4 

VI 

58 

17 

6 

1 

12 

6 

1 

3 

3 

4 

9 

26 

19 

230 

324 

516 

1514 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1834  TO  SEPT.  1835. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

a 

1 

iS 

1 

Stallions. 

i 

1 

W 

1 

Apparition, 

Barefoot, 

Contract, 

Leviathan, 

Truffle, 

Valentine, 

I 
6 

1 
1 

3 
1 
6 
1 

1 

5 
1 
2 
16 
3 
2 

5 

14 
6 

22 
6 

2 

Alexander, 

Andrew  Jackson,* 

Arab,* 

Bertrand,* 

BUnd  Jackson,* 

Bolivar, 

Boxer, 

Brunswick, 

Carolinian,* 

Cherokee,* 

Claremont, 

Combination, 

Conqueror, 

Contention,* 

Coruwallis, 

Crusader,* 

Director,* 

1 

1 

10 

23 

1 

1 
1 

3 

1 
2 
3 
1 
1 
2 
1 

3 
1 
17 
30 
4 
1 
1 
1 
2 
7 
1 

5 
9 
1 
6 

1 

H 
1 

47 

70 

9 

3 

2 

2 

5 

13 

2 

5 

13 

18 

2 

15 

2 

19 
1 

80 
122 

22 
3 
2 
2 

13 

20 
4 
7 

19 

62 
4 

20 

♦  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


516  TABLE   OF   STOCK. 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1834  TO  SEPT.  1SS5— Continued. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIUE3. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

1 

CO 

s 

1 

s 

Stallions. 

t 

i 

2 

1 

1 

§ 

Doublehead, 

1 

2 

4 

8 

Eclipse, 

14 

19 

48 

19 

Falstaff, 

2 

3 

6 

6 

Gen.  Jackson's   | 
Bolivar,            ) 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Gift, 

2 

4 

4 

4 

Giles  Scroggins,* 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Gohanna,* 

11 

11 

39 

81 

Havoc, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Hepbestion, 

2 

4 

8 

26 

Hotspur, 

2 

5 

11 

24 

Industry,* 

3 

5 

11 

1*7 

Jackson, 

1 

2 

5 

5 

Ivanhoe, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Janus,* 

1 

2 

4 

8 

Jerry, 

1 

1 

6 

5 

John  Henry, 

1 

1 

1 

2 

John  Richards,* 

9 

12 

30 

68 

Kosciusko,* 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Knight's  Hamiltoniau 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Lafayette, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Lance, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Marion,* 

6 

9 

16 

3*7 

Marcus, 

1 

1 

3 

9 

Marylander, 

1 

1 

3 

9 

Maryland  EcUpse, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Mayday,* 

1 

4 

6 

11 

Medley, 

8 

12 

30 

52 

Mercury,* 

.5 

h 

11 

21 

Merlin,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Mons.  Tonson, 

13 

19 

41 

115 

Muckle  John,* 

2 

3 

6 

12 

1  Oscar, 

1 

2 

4 

12 

jPacific,*] 

1 

13 

28 

14 

Pacolet, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Phenix  Archy, 

1 

2 

2 

2 

Peacemaker, 

1 

i 

2 

4 

Phenomenon, 

2 

2 

4 

8 

Pirate, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Powhattan, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Randolph's  Janus, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Rattler,* 

4 

4 

9 

21 

Rcgulus, 

1 

2 

5 

1 

Robin, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

iRob  Roy, 

4 

5 

10 

14 

1  Roanoke,* 

2 

2 

5 

9 

Shakspcare, 

5 

5 

13 

17 

Shawnee,* 

1 

3 

5 

12 

Sir  Andrew, 

1 

2 

4 

14 

Sir  Alfred, 

1 

1 

1 

2 

8 

♦  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 


.17 


WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1834  TO  SEPT.  1S55— Confined. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

£ 

S 

Stallions. 

^ 

1 

1 
1 

Stallions. 

S 
^ 

K 

1 

Sir  Archv,* 

8 

13 

30 

62 

Sir  Archy  of  Trans-  | 
port,*                     [ 
Sir  Charles,* 

1 
10 

1 
15 

2 
32 

4 
63 

Sir  Henry,* 
Sir  George, 
Sir  James,* 

5 
1 

2 

6 

I 

14 
2 
4 

35 
4 
6 

• 

Sir  Henrv  Tonson, 

1 

3 

6 

8 

Sir  Richard,* 

3 

4 

10 

21 

Sir  Richard  Tonson, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Star, 

2 

3 

8 

26 

Stockholder,* 

9 

13 

30 

55 

Sumpter,* 
Tariff,* 
Tiger, 
Timoleon,* 

5 

3 
11 

12 

0 

14 

26 
6 
1 

34 

42 
14 
12 
41 

Tormentor, 

2 

5 

6 

Trumpator, 
Vantromp, 
Washington, 

S 

2 

n 

4 

2 

16 

Waxv,* 

1 

2 

2 

White's  Timoleon, 

2 

2 

Wm.  of  Transport,* 
WiUiam  TeU, 

3 
1 

9 
1 

Young  Director, 

4 

4 

6 

13 

14 

35 

55 

90 

265  393 

851 

1704 

WINNING  HORSES  FROil  SEPT.  1835  TO  SEPT.  1836. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIYE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

2 

1 

H 

1 

Stallions. 

1 
1 

_ 

1 

Apparition, 

4 

8 

14 

Alexander, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Barefoot, 

1 

2 

6 

Arab,* 

6 

8 

17 

30 

Chateau  Margaux, 

1 

3 

6 

Aratus, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Contract, 

1 

2 

2 

Baron  Trenck, 

1 

2 

6 

9 

Leviathan, 

18 

37 

57 

Bertrand,* 

18 

24 

58 

118 

BoUvar, 

1 

4 

9 

15 

Botetourt  Whip, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Boxer, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Brown  Sumpter, 

] 

1 

31     e| 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


618  TABLE    OF    STOCK. 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1835  TO  SEPT.  18S6— Continued. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 


BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 


Byron, 

Carolinian,* 

Cherokee,* 

Childers,* 

Combination, 

Columbus, 

Contention,* 

Crusader,* 

Director,* 

Diomed, 

Doublehead, 

Druid, 

Eclipse, 

Escape, 

Falstaff, 

Flagellator, 

Frank, 

Giles  Scroggins,* 

Godolphin, 

Gohanna,* 

Henry,* 

Hickory, 

Hotspur, 

Industry,* 

Jack  Downing, 

Janus,* 

Jackson,* 

John  Henry, 

Jerry, 

John  Richards,* 

Kosciusko,* 

Lance, 

Mambrlno, 

Marion,* 

Maryland  Eclipse, 

Medley, 

Mercury,* 

Merlin,* 

Mons.  Tonson, 

Muckle  John,* 

Muley, 

Pacific,* 

Pacolet, 

Phenomenon, 

Pirate', 

Powhattan, 

Ratlcr,* 

Katler,  Russcl's, 

Red  Gauntlet,* 

Red  Rover,* 


*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF   STOCK,  519 

WINMNG  HOESES  FROil  SEPT.  1835  TO  SEPT.  l^ZQ— Continued. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 


13    25     52      85 


BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 


Robin  Adair,* 

Roanoke,* 

Rob  Roy, 

Saladin, 

Sea  GuU,* 

Saltram, 

Shakspeare, 

Sliannondale, 

Shawnee,* 

Sir  Andrew, 

Sir  Alfred, 

Sir  Archy,* 

Sir  Archy  of  Trans- 
port,* 

Sir  Charles,* 

Sir  George, 

Sir  Hal,* 

Sir  Richard,* 

Sir  William,* 

Sir  William  of  ) 
Transport,*   ) 

Spring  Hill, 

Star, 

Starch, 

Stockholder,* 

Sumpter,* 

Sussex, 

Tiger  Whip, 

Timoleon,* 

Tom  Tough, 

Tormentor, 

Trumpator, 

Ulysses, 

Washington, 

Waxy,* 

Whip, 


93 


10 

6 
29i 

3 
15 

2 
12 
94 

54 

109 

2 

20 

18 


4 
42 

3 
"75^ 
29 

5 

4 
49 

1 

6 
24 

2 
12 
27 

3 


273  381    850  1708^ 


Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


520 


TABLE   OF    STOCK. 


WINNING  HOKSES  I'ROM  SEPT.  1886  TO  DEC.  1«37. 


BY  IMPOKTED  SIKES. 

I 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

i 

a 

a 

1 

f 

1 

Stallions. 

£ 

is 

1 

Heats. 

Miles. 

1 

Amurath, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Agrippa, 

1 

1 

3'        3 

Apparition, 

9 

2 

3 

8 

Arab,* 

2 

6 

lOJ     25 

Barefoot, 

4 

10 

IG 

Astyanax, 

1 

1 

1 

Chateau  Margaux, 

1 

3 

9 

Benahan's  Archy,* 

1 

1 

1 

Contract, 

1 

2 

2 

Bcrtrand,* 

16 

24 

53 

122 

Fylde, 

6 

13 

17 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

1 

3 

6 

Hedglord, 

1 

2 

2 

Brunswick, 

3 

8 

10 

Leviathan, 

20 

38 

78 

170 

Buck  Elk, 

1 

2 

2 

Luzborough, 

11 

13 

27 

33 

Byron, 

2 

4 

8 

Carolinian,* 

4 

9 

11 

Cadmus,* 

1 

4 

4 

Champion, 

2 

9 

11 

ICherokee,* 

6 

14 

28 

jColumbus, 

6 

16 

24 

Clay's  Sir  WiUiam,* 

1 

1 

2 

ClaiiuR, 

1 

1 

1 

Cock  of  the  Rock, 

1 

8 

6 

. 

Contention,* 

2 

6 

9 

Covington's  Director, 

1 

1 

1 

Crusader,* 

5 

13 

23 

Dick  DashaU, 

o 

3 

6 

6 

Eclipse, 

18 

34 

85 

185 

Eclipse  Lightfoot, 

1 

2 

2 

File, 

1 

4 

4 

Flagcllator, 

4 

8 

30 

Florizel, 

1 

2 

4 

Frank, 

1 

2 

2 

Giles  Scroggins,* 

1 

5 

5 

;Gohanna,* 

5 

14 

33 

Godolphin, 

1 

•J. 

4 

:  Henry,* 

10 

25 

75 

Herr  Cline,* 

1 

3 

3 

Hephestion, 

1 

2 

4 

Hotspur, 

1 

2 

6 

Industry,* 

13 

30 

109 

Jack  Downing, 

1 

2 

4 

Jackson,* 

1 

4 

12 

James  Cropper, 

1 

2 

Janus,* 

1 

2 

4 

Jerry, 

4 

8 

16 

John  Bingley, 

1 

3 

12 

John  Richards,* 

10 

21 

43 

King's  Diamond, 

1 

2 

2 

Kirkland, 

2 

2 

2 

Kosciusko,* 

5 

18 

27 

Lance, 

7 

17 

23 

Lance,  Jr., 

1 

2 

6 

Lawrence, 

1 

3 

6 

i  Marion,* 

2 

2 

5 

9 

Mason's  Ratler, 

2 

2 

' 

8 

Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF    STOCK.  521 

WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT.  1836  TO  DEC.  18S1 —Continued. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 


BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 


Medley, 

Mercury,* 

Merlin,* 

Mods.  Tonson, 

Mormon, 

Muckle  John,* 

Murat, 

Kullifier, 

Pacific,* 

Pacolet, 

Paul  Jones, 

Pamunkey, 

Peacemaker, 

Pirate, 

President, 

Phenomenon, 

Ratler,* 

Red  Gauntlet,* 

Red  Rover,  Adams' 

Red  Fox, 

Regulus, 

Roanoke,* 
Rob  Roy, 
Rockingham, 
Sea  Gull,* 
Sir  AnUrew, 
Sir  Archy,* 
Sir  Archy  of  Trans-  j 
port,*  ] 

Sir  Charles,* 
Sir  Henry  Tonson, 
Sir  Richard,* 
Sir  Tompkins, 
Sir  William,* 
Star, 

Stockholder,* 
Sumpter,* 


Tariff, 

Timoleon,* 

Telegraph, 

Tom  Fletcher, 

Traveller, 

Trumpator, 

Valentine, 

Van  Tromp, 

Vespucius, 

Victor, 

Volcano, 

Waxy,* 


10 


10 


150 

6 

1 

4 

4 

21 

53 

3 

55 

18 

15 


*  Got  liy  Sir  Archy. 


52: 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 


WINNING  HORSES  FROM  SEPT. 


TO  DEC.  ISZI— Continued. 


BY  IMPOUTED  SIRES. 

1 
BY  JS'ATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

n 

s 

(§ 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

1 

1^ 

Whip, 
Wild  BiU,* 
Woodpecker, 
Young  Director, 
Young  Virginian, 

1 
2 
3 

1 
3 

1 
3 
4 

1 
3 

2 
6 
10 
3 
4 

4 

12 

22 

3 

8 

9 

51    67 

140 

265 

104 

287  379 

621 

1810 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1838. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

a 
a 

* 

1 

S 

Stallions. 

i 

i 

1 

S 

^ 

M 

W 

§ 

^ 

M 

W 

S 

Apparition, 

3 

3 

8 

13 

Alonzo, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Autocrat, 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Andrew, 

7 

15 

31 

58 

Barefoot, 

5 

6 

14 

19 

Andrew  Jackson,* 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Contract, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Arab,* 

3 

4 

11 

21 

Fvlde, 

10 

20 

44 

93 

Benahan's  Archy,* 

1 

o 

5 

8 

Hedgford, 

5 

9 

20 

45 

Bertrand,* 

28 

43 

92 

167 

Humphrey  Clinker, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

2 

2 

4 

8 

Leviathan, 

34 

70 

140 

263 

Big  Archy, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Lebeau, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Bolivar, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Luzborough, 

20 

26 

58 

81 

Brooke, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Muley, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Brunswick, 

1 

1 

3 

•  3 

Priam, 

2 

4 

7 

14 

Buck  Elk, 

2 

3 

6 

16 

Sarpcdon, 

3 

4 

10 

10 

Brilliant, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Shakspeare, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Bullock's  Muckle  ) 
John,                 ) 

13 

Tramp, 

2 

3 

7 

13 

Truffle, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Busiris, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Valentine, 

3 

3 

7 

22 

Candidate, 

1 

1 

4 

Victory, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Carolinian,* 

Champion, 

Cherokee,* 

Clermont, 

Clinton, 

Collier, 

Columbus, 

Commodore, 

Count  Badger, 

Covington's  Director, 

Crusader,* 

Cultivator, 

1 

1 
2 
1 
1 
4 
2 
1 
3 
1 
6 
1 

1 
1 
2 

1 
2 
6 

2 
4 
1 
8 
1 

2 
3 
7 
2 
4 

15 
6 
5 
9 
1 

16 
1 

2 
6 

11 
2 
4 

85 
5 
5 

15 
1 

30 
1 

Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  18S8— Continued. 


523 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 


BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 


Dashall, 

Diamond, 

Diomed, 

Director,* 

Director,  Jr., 

Dungaanon, 

Dnplantier's  Boaster, 

Duroc, 

Eclipse, 

Eclipse  Lightfoot, 

Emilius, 

Festival, 

Flagellator, 

Frank, 

Giles  Scroggins,* 

Godolphin, 

Gohauna,* 

Goliah, 

Greybeard, 

Havoc, 

Henry,* 

Hephestion, 

Industry,* 

Jackson,* 

Jack  Downing, 
I  Jerry, 

John  Richards,* 

King  William, 

Kirkland, 

JKosciusko,* 

Lafayette  Stock-  ) 

I     holder,  y 

Lance, 

JMarcellus, 

Malcolm, 

.Marion,* 

Marmion, 

Mary  lander, 

Maryland  Eclipse, 

McDuffie, 

Medley, 

Medoc, 

Mercury,* 

Merlin,* 

Midas, 

Mons.  Tonson, 

Monmouth  Eclipse, 

Muckle  John,* 

Nullifier, 

O'Kelly, 


125 

6 

4 

1 

1 

5 

6 

•  5 

11 

9 

2 

12 

35 


1 
16 
13 

9 
14 
22 
11 

2 

12 

117 

12 

81 

3 


45 

3 

3 

13 

4 

2 

6 

3 

109 

38 

10 

11 

1 

31 

29 

5 

5 

13 


'  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


524 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  ISSS—Coiitinned. 


BY  LMPOKTED  SIKES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

i 

i 

C5 

J 

StalUona. 

g 

i 

1 

s 

^ 

1 

O 

1 

1 

M 

W 

1 

Orphan  Boy,* 

2 

6 

6 

Oscar,  Jr., 

1 

2 

4 

Pacific,* 

10 

12 

27 

50 

Pacolet, 

1 

2 

2 

Pamunkv, 

2 

5 

14 

Parrot's  "Sir  Charles, 

1 

5 

6 

Paul  CUfFord, 

3 

6 

6 

Phenomenon, 

6 

15 

32 

Pirate, 

1 

3 

9 

Plato, 

2 

5 

12 

Potomac, 

1 

3 

3 

Printer,* 

1 

1 

1 

Pulaski, 

2 

5 

5 

Randolph, 

1 

1 

1 

Ratler,* 

1 

13 

19 

Red  Gauntlet,* 

Regulus, 

Richard, 

Richard  Singleton, 

Riego,* 

Riot, 

Roanoke,* 

Rob  Roy, 

Robert  Burns, 

Saxe  Weimar,* 

Sea  Gull,* 

ISir  Archy,* 

5 
1 
1 
3 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 

10 
1 
2 

2 
3 
4 

2 
4 
1 

12 
1 
2 
9 
2 
2 
8 
4 
2 
2 

12 
1 

Sir  Archy  of  Tran-  ) 
sport,                     f 

5 

13 

23 

Sir  Charles,* 

25 

39 

87 

190 

Sir  Henry  Tonson, 

3 

6 

16 

Sir  Leslie, 

1 

0 

8 

'Sir  Lovel, 

3 

6 

10 

Sir  Percy, 

4 

4 

Sir  Peter  Lely, 

1 

2 

4 

Sir  Richard,* 

1 

2 

2 

Sir  Robert  Wilson, 

1 

2 

2 

Sir  William,* 

2 

4 

6 

Splendor, 

2 

3 

9 

Snowstorm, 

3 

5 

6 

Star, 

6 

9 

14 

Star  of  the  West, 

1 

3 

3 

Stockholder,* 

10 

15 

27 

48 

Starch,  Eng., 

2 

5 

10 

St.  Nicholas, 

1 

1 

1 

Sumpter,* 

1 

2 

6 

Sussex, 

5 

11 

33 

Sweetbrier, 

1 

3 

3 

Tariff, 

2 

6 

8 

|Telegraph, 

1 

2 

2 

•  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  ISZ8— Continued. 


525 


( 

BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

StaUions. 

M 

1 

fa 

i 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

1 

Timoleon,* 

The  Colonel, 

Tom  Fletcher, 

Traveller, 

Trumpator, 

Tychicus, 

Uncas, 

Veto, 

Volcano, 

Washington, 

Waxy,* 

Wehawk, 

Whalebone, 

Wild  BiU,* 

Woodpecker, 

Young  Virginian, 

Zinganee,* 

11 

1 

3 
1 
5 

2 
1 
1 
2 
1 
6 
1 
2 
1 
9 
3 
1 

20 
2 
4 

8 
2 
1 
2 
2 
1 

10 
2 
2 
9 

11 
9 
1 

41 

4 

9 

4 

13 

4 

2 

3 

4 

3 

25 

5 

4 

24 

24 

19 

3 

120 

8 

13 

4 

38 

8 

2 

6 

6 

3 

35 

7 

4 

41 

38 

43 

3 

18 

97 

158 

335 

600 

143 

406 

595 

1327 

2445 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1839. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Stallions. 

.2 

1 

1 

J 

1 

Autocrat, 

7 

8 

21 

38 

Ace  of  Diamonds, 

1 

1 

2 

Barefoot, 

2 

2 

4 

8 

Actason, 

1 

1 

1 

Chateau  Margaux, 

2 

3 

6 

6 

Agrippa, 

1 

1 

2 

Contract, 

3 

3 

6 

12 

Andrew, 

11 

20 

39 

69 

Emancipation, 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Archy  Montorio,* 

3 

4 

9 

11 

Fylde, 

14 

20 

46 

99 

Arab,* 

1 

1 

2 

Hedgford, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Argyle, 

1 

2 

4 

Leviathan, 

27 

48 

107 

182 

Bertrand,* 

14 

21 

57 

132 

Luzborough, 

11 

20 

45 

89 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

4 

4 

11 

21 

Priam, 

3 

6 

10 

31 

Bertrand,  King's, 

1 

1 

2 

Roman, 

3 

4 

9 

14 

Birmingham, 

1 

1 

2 

Richard, 

1 

1 

1 

2 

BoHvar, 

1 

1 

1 

Rowton, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Brunswick, 

3 

3 

6 

6 

Sarpedon, 

4 

5 

9 

24, 

Busiris, 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Tranby, 

3 

3 

8 

8 

CaroUnian,* 

1 

1 

4 

8 

Valentine, 

1 

1 

1 

2' 

Chanticleer, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Whale, 

1 

1 

' 

6| 

Chifney, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

*  act  by  Sir  Archy. 


526 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 
"WINNING  HORSES  FOR  18Sd— Continued. 


BY  IMPOKTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

t 

a 

8 

1 

Stallions. 

I 

(4 

K 

1 

Clinton, 

1 

2 

5 

10 

Collier, 

3 

3 

7 

11 

Columbus, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Conqueror, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Contest, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Count  Badger, 

3 

3 

1 

7 

Count  Piper, 

2 

2 

7 

7 

Critic, 

1 

2 

4 

14 

Daghee, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Dashall, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Defence, 

1 

2 

4 

10 

Director,  Jr., 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Eclipse, 

16 

30 

87 

141 

Eclipse  Lightfoot, 

1 

4 

8 

16 

Emilius, 

2 

3 

6 

6 

Filho  da  Puta, 

1 

3 

6 

22 

Flagellator, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Frank, 

4 

5 

11 

24 

Giles  Scroggins,* 

1 

1 

5 

5 

Giles  Scroggins,  Jr., 

1 

3 

8 

24 

Godolphin, 

2 

2 

5 

10 

Gohanna,* 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Goliah, 

10 

12 

28 

38 

Granby, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Hardluck, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Havoc, 

1 

2 

3 

3 

Henry,* 

3 

6 

13 

37 

Hephestion, 

1 

2 

4 

8 

Houston,  Russel's, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Humphrey  Clinker, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Hyazim,* 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Industry,* 

2 

3 

6 

14 

Ivanhoe, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Jackson,* 

4 

4 

10 

13 

Jefferson, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

John  Dawson, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

John  Richards,* 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Kosciusko,* 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Lafayette, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Lafayette  Stock- ) 
holder,              \ 

2 

2 

4 

10 

Lance, 

3 

4 

8 

8 

Langar, 

1 

3 

8 

15 

Leviathan,  Cantrel's, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

iLittle  John, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Longwaist, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Mambrino, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Marion,* 

2 

2 

4 

7 

Marlboro', 

1 

2 

3 

9 

Mark  Anthony,* 

1 

' 

2 

2 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HOKSES  FOR  1839— Co7itinued. 


527 


BY  IMPOETED  SIRES. 

BY  KATITE  8IEES. 

Stallions. 

i 

i 

S3 
"1 

J 

Stallions. 

2 
1 

i 

ats. 

les. 

1 

« 

2 

1 

M 

w  i    S 

Marmion, 

2 

2 

4        6 

iMarvlander, 

3 

61      16 

Maryland  Eclipse, 

1 

2        4 

Medley, 

3 

7      11 

Medoc, 

23 

34 

76    138 

Mercury,* 

1 

2!       2 

Merlin,* 

2 

4 

10 

j  Monmouth  Eclipse, 

14 

34 

60 

iMons.  Tonson, 

3 

9 

9 

|Muckle  John,* 

4 

9 

15 

Napoleon,* 

1 

2 

2 

NuUifier, 

1 

3 

3 

O'Kelly, 

6 

11 

15 

Orphan  Boy,* 

2 

4 

4 

Pacific,* 

10 

25 

59 

iPamunky, 

4 

10 

21 

Phantom, 

1 

2 

2 

Pirate, 

2 

4 

14 

Priam,  Badger's, 

1 

2 

2 

Red  Rover,* 

2 

4 

8 

Reveller, 

1 

2 

2 

Revenge, 

1 

1 

2 

Shark, 

6 

15 

22 

Sir  Charles,* 

16 

31 

102 

Singleton, 

1 

2 

Sir  Kirkland, 

2 

6 

12 

Shakspeare, 

1 

2 

2 

Sir  Lovel, 

1 

2 

4 

Sir  Peter  Lely, 

3 

5 

10 

Sir  Pitt, 

3 

5 

5 

Sir  William,* 

2 

4 

8 

Star, 

5 

10 

22 

Stockholder,* 

5 

12 

22 

Sumpter,* 

1 

1 

1 

Talleyrand, 

2 

5 

7 

Timoleon,* 

14 

31 

86 

Tormentor, 

2 

2 

Tramp, 

5 

15 

Traveller, 

6 

6 

Tychicus, 

7 

17 

Ulysses, 

10 

12 

Uncas, 

1 

1 

Waxv,* 

12 

21 

Wild"  Bill,* 

8 

20 

Woodpecker, 

18 

51 

Wonder, 

8 

10 

Young  Eclipse, 

3 

5 

7 

IT 

86 

129 

282 

529 
1 

113 

267 

il6 

921 

1691 

•  Got  by  Sir  Arch/. 


i28 


TABLE   OF    STOCK. 


WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1840. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES 

Btallions. 

2   i 
a       o 

42 

1 

ii 

Stallions. 

i 

a 

A 

1 

J 

Autocrat, 

6 

6 

14 

25 

Action, 

2 

4 

11 

24 

Barefoot, 

4 

5 

10 

13 

Andrew, 

8 

23 

45 

103 

Chateau  Margaux, 

7 

8 

16 

30 

Arab,* 

2 

2 

3 

1 

Consol, 

4 

4 

11 

20 

Argyle, 

2 

2 

4 

10 

Emancipation, 

3 

7 

16 

16 

Bedford, 

1 

3 

3 

Felt, 

3 

5 

14 

18 

Bel  Air, 

1 

2 

4 

Fvlde, 

4 

9 

23 

78 

Bertrand,* 

11 

18 

33 

61 

Hedgford, 

2 

3 

5 

5 

Bcrtrand,  Jr., 

6 

16 

38 

Leviathan, 

37 

54 

117 

254 

Bertrand,  King's, 

1 

2 

4 

Luzborough, 

27 

52 

120 

213 

Birmingham, 

1 

2 

6 

Margrave, 

3 

4 

7 

11 

Black  Hawk, 

1 

1 

1 

Merman, 

3 

4 

9 

14 

Blood  and  Turf, 

1 

2 

2 

Nonplus, 

2 

2 

4 

12 

Cadet, 

1 

3 

3 

Roman, 

2 

5 

11 

28 

Cadmus,* 

1 

2 

2 

Rowton, 

3 

4 

9 

20 

Carolinian,* 

1 

2 

6 

Sarpedon, 

6 

6 

13 

22 

Cliaractcr, 

1 

2 

2 

Shakspeare, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Cherokee,* 

1 

1 

1 

Swiss, 

1 

1 

3 

5 

Citizen, 

1 

3 

3 

Tranby, 

5 

10 

26 

43 

CHnton, 

5 

11 

23 

Truffle, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Cock  of  the  Rock, 

1 

2 

2 

Trustee, 

6 

7 

14 

18 

Collier, 

13 

39 

69 

Whale, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Consul, 

Coriasco, 

Count  Badger, 

Count  Piper, 

Cowpen, 

Dashall, 

Dick  Singleton, 

Diomed, 

Director,* 

1 
1 
8 
2 
1 
2 

1 
3 

2 
4 

17 
8 
1 
6 
3 
3 
9 

2 

4 

22 

10 

1 

6 

3 

3 

11 

Drone, 

2 

4 

10 

13 

Eclipse, 

12 

22 

50 

121 

Eclipse  Lightfoot, 

2 

2 

4 

8 

Editor, 

1 

3 

7 

13 

Emilius, 

2 

2 

5 

9 

English  Dick, 

1 

3 

3 

Equinox, 

2 

3 

8 

Escape, 

1 

1 

2 

Flagellator, 

1 

2 

6 

Frank, 

4 

11 

15 

Gascoigne, 

2 

5 

5 

Giles  Scroggins,* 

2 

3 

3 

Giles  Scroggins,  Jr., 

1 

2 

2 

Glaucus, 

1 

2 

2 

Godolphin, 

2 

5 

5 

Gohanna,* 

1 

8 

12 

Goliah, 

3 

7 

12 

iHal  .M alone. 

1 

3 

6 

Hannibal, 

1 

3 

3 

1 

JHavoc, 

1 

2 

2 

*  Got  by  Sir  Arcby. 


TABLE   OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1840— Continued. 


529 


BY  IMPOltTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

StaUions. 

1 

1 

ii 

Stallions. 

Hi 

1 

Heart  of  Oak, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Henry,* 

1 

1 

2 

8 

Hickory, 

1 

2 

4 

4 

Industry,* 

4 

5 

13 

17 

Ivanhoe, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Jackson,* 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Janus,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Jefferson, 

1 

5 

12 

14 

Jerseyman, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Jim  Cropper, 

1 

2 

4 

6 

John  Richards,* 

5 

5 

12 

16 

Lance, 

2 

6 

13 

15 

Lauderdale, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Langar, 

2 

7 

17 

24 

Leopold, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Little  Red, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Malcolm, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Mambrino, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

iLiHon,* 

2 

4 

12 

18 

Marmion, 

2 

3 

10 

10 

Medoc, 

34 

61 

144 

289 

Merlin,*  ^ 
Monmouth  Eclipse, 

2 
4 

6 
5 

13 

10 

39 
22 

Mons.  Tonson, 

5 

6 

16 

37 

Mount  Airv, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Muckle  John,  Jr., 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Mulatto, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Nullifier, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

O'Connell, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

O'Kelly, 

3 

4 

8 

21 

Old  Partner, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Old  Saul, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Orphan  Boy, 

1 

1 

5 

5 

Pacific, 

6 

T 

17 

37 

Pamunky, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Patrick  Henry, 

2 

6 

11 

11 

* 

Piamingo, 

1 

2 

3 

3 

Pirate, 

2 

8 

6 

19 

Plenipo, 

2 

2 

4 

5 

Priam, 

1 

2 

5 

10 

Robin  Brown, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Robin  Hood, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Shark, 

5 

8 

16 

35 

Sidi  Hamet, 

2 

2 

4 

6 

Sir  Charles,* 

4 

4 

8 

18 

Sir  CUnton, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Sir  Leslie, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Sir  Lovel, 

1 

2 

4 

12 

Sir  William,* 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Sparrow-hawk, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

ToL.  L— 34 


*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


530 


TABLE   OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  I8i0— Continued. 


BT  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BT  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

e 

s 

1 

M 

J 

Stallions. 

i 

i 

1 

1 

# 

Star, 

St.  Nicholas, 

Stockholder,* 

St.  Patrick, 

Sussex, 

Telegraph, 

Tiger, 

Timoleon,* 

Tramp, 

Traveller, 

Trumpator, 

Tuscahoma, 

Tychicus, 

Ulysses, 

Uncas, 

Valiant, 

Vertuninus, 

Volcano, 

Waxy,* 

Whalebone, 

Wild  Bill,* 

Woodpecker, 

Zinganee,  Garrison's* 

Cain  or  Actaeon, 

1 

1 

9 
1 

1 
1 
2 
3 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
3 
1 
1 
2 

1 

2 
14 

12 

3 
4 
2 

8 
2 

30 
6 
2 
2 
4 

23 
2 
1 
2 
9 

13 
3 
4 
2 
2 
2 
5 
2 
4 
5 
8 
4 

8 
4 

53 
8 
2 
2 
8 

82 
6 
1 
2 

15 

19 
3 
8 
2 
4 
8 
9 
4 

12 
5 

22 
4 

22 

131 

199 

448 

854 

124 

2G1 

418 

945 

1753 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1841. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BT  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

1 

S 

S 

S 

Stallions. 

CO 

m 

^ 

M 

w 

a 

^ 

M 

W 

s 

Autocrat, 

3 

5 

12 

29 

ActJEon, 

2 

7 

10 

Barefoot, 

4 

6 

10 

14 

Andrew, 

11 

23 

52 

Belshazzar, 

1 

3 

4 

11 

Arab,* 

2 

5 

5 

Cctus, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Argyle, 

3 

5 

20 

Chateau  Margaux, 

6 

9 

19 

49 

Ben  Sutton, 

1 

2 

2 

Consol, 

1 

13 

31 

53 

Bertrand,* 

14 

20 

53 

105 

Emancipation, 

6 

8 

16 

25 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

2 

4 

8 

Felt, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Black  Hawk, 

1 

3 

3 

Fylde, 

4 

8 

17 

49 

Bluster, 

1 

1 

1 

Glencoe, 

6 

12 

27 

50 

Boxer, 

1 

2 

2 

♦  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  184:1— Continued. 


631 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

1 
S 

Stallions. 

§ 

.s 

1 

i 

1 

Hedgford, 

3 

3 

4 

5 

Byron, 

1 

1 

2 

Leviathan, 

27 

37 

79 

158 

Cliarles  Kemble,* 

1 

2 

2 

Luzborough, 

U 

15 

34 

68 

Cherokee,* 

3 

4 

5 

6 

Margrave, 

2 

4 

9 

27 

Childers,* 

1 

2 

2 

Nonplus, 

2 

8 

7 

11 

Clifton, 

1 

2 

2 

Priam, 

14 

19 

42 

48 

CUnton, 

1 

2 

8 

Rowton, 

10 

14 

32 

60 

Cock  of  the  Rock, 

4 

6 

6 

Sarpedon, 

6 

13 

38 

65 

Collier, 

4 

9 

22 

Shakspeare, 

8 

3 

6 

6 

Columbus, 

1 

3 

6 

Skylark, 

3 

3 

6 

6 

Count  Badger, 

4 

14 

16 

Tranby, 

6 

13 

29 

48 

Cowper, 

1 

2 

2 

Trustee, 

9 

14 

33 

70 

Critic, 

4 

10 

82 

Zinganee, 

2 

4 

7 

10 

Cymon, 
Director,* 
Drone, 
Dr.  Syntax, 

6 
2 
1 
1 

13 

5 
1 

1 

25 
7 
1 
1 

Eclipse, 

16 

25 

58 

111 

Eclipse  Lightfoot, 

3 

6 

10 

Editor, 

2 

3 

6 

Emilius, 

1 

1 

2 

Flagg, 

1 

3 

3 

Frank, 

9 

19 

22 

Giles  Scrdggins,* 

4 

8 

14 

Glancus, 

2 

5 

18 

Gohanna,* 

1 

4 

4 

Goliah, 

2 

7 

11 

Hyazim,* 

1 

1 

1 

Industry,* 

2 

4 

8 

Ivanhoe, 

2 

5 

9 

Jeftersonian, 

1 

2 

2 

Jerry, 

1 

2 

4 

Jim  Cropper, 

2 

4 

10 

John  Dawson, 

5 

9 

17 

John  Richards,* 

1 

2 

2 

Laplander, 

1 

2 

2 

Lauderdale, 

1 

3 

3 

Lord  Byron, 

1 

1 

1 

Xuckless, 

1 

1 

1 

Marion,* 

5 

10 

32 

Marshal  Ney, 

1 

1 

1 

Mazeppa, 

2 

4 

4 

Medoc, 

21 

51 

137 

280 

Monmouth  Eclipse, 

12 

30 

55 

Mons.  Tonson, 

2 

2 

7 

14 

Moscow, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Muckle  John,* 

3 

3 

9 

9 

Muley  Moloch, 

1 

2 

3 

5 

O'Kelly, 

3 

4 

4 

5 

Pacific,* 

6 

10 

24 

37 

Pamunky, 

2 

5 

11 

15 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


53:4 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  I8il— Continued. 


BY  IMPORTED  8IKES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

i 

e 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

Stallions. 

.5 

K 

S 

J 

Platoff, 

2 

5 

6 

Push  Pin, 

2 

6 

8 

Red  Gauntlet,* 

2 

4 

4 

Red  Rover,* 

3 

6 

10 

Robin  Hood, 

5 

5 

Saladin, 

3 

8 

Sea  GuU,* 

3 

3 

Shark, 

15 

47 

Sidi  Hamet, 

10 

17 

Sir  Archy  Montorio,* 

9 

17 

Sir  Henry,* 

2 

2 

Sir  Leslie, 

6 

18 

Star, 

3 

3 

Stockholder,* 

4 

6 

Sumpter,* 

3 

3 

Taurus, 

6 

22 

Tennessee  Citizen, 

2 

4 

Terror, 

2 

6 

Tiger, 

4 

6 

Timoleon,* 

11 

44 

Tormentor, 

4 

4 

Tramp, 

6 

Traveller, 

2 

2 

Trumpator, 

3 

3 

Tuscahoma, 

5 

5 

Tychicus, 

6 

13 

Uncas, 

'7 

9 

Van  Tromp, 

4 

4 

Vortumnus, 

2 

2 

Volcano, 

3 

'6 

Wlialebone, 

7 

7 

Wild  Bill,* 

2 

8 

8 

Zinganee,  Garrison's* 

3 

8 

19 

37 

Cain  or  Actaeon, 

1 

5 

10 

22 

23 

138 

212 

469 

858' 

9-i 

ion 

320 

773 

1434 

♦  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1842. 


533 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

S 

2 

1 

M 

Stallions. 

c 

i 

i 

£ 

^ 

M 

W 

ii 

1 

1 

w 

1 

Autocrat, 

6 

7 

20 

43 

Andrew, 

2 

4 

10 

17 

Barefoot, 

1 

4 

8 

14 

Anvil, 

1 

2 

6 

5 

Cetus, 

2 

2 

5 

8 

Argyle, 

2 

2 

4 

13 

Chateau  Margaux, 

3 

5 

12 

34 

Berner's  Comus, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Claret, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Bertrand,* 

9 

17 

41 

98 

Consul, 

6 

1*7 

37 

113 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

2 

4 

ic 

26 

Coronet, 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Birmingham, 

1 

3 

5 

6 

Emancipation, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Busiris, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Felt, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Camel, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Fop, 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Childers,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Glencoe, 

6 

9 

20 

31 

Chorister, 

1 

1 

4 

8 

Hedgford, 

6 

6 

16 

23 

Cock  of  the  Rock, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Leviathan, 

20 

28 

60 

105 

Colonel  (The), 

3 

3 

6 

8 

Luzborough, 

5 

11 

24 

50 

Collier, 

4 

4 

8 

10 

Margrave, 

6 

12 

30 

57 

Columbus, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Merman, 

4 

4 

8 

14 

Count  Badger, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Nonplus, 

4 

5 

10 

18 

Cramp, 

2 

2 

4 

6 

Philip, 

4 

6 

15 

20 

Dr.  Syntax, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Priam, 

24 

53 

117 

196 

Dick  Chinn, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Roman, 

1 

1 

6 

Drone, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Rowton, 

1 

11 

24 

32 

Eclipse, 

18 

30 

66 

148 

Sarpedon, 

5 

9 

30 

55 

Emancipator, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Shakspeare, 

2 

2 

4 

6 

Frank, 

1 

2 

4 

12 

Skylark, 

4 

6 

14 

22 

Giles  Scroggins,* 

1 

2 

5 

15 

Tranby, 

4 

h 

18 

24 

Glaucus, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Trustee, 

1 

12 

26 

52 

Henry  Clay,      ) 
Mccarty's,    f 

Zinganee, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Hualpa, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

1 

Hugh  L.  White, 

4 

5 

9 

9 

Ivanhoe, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

John  Anderson, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Jackson,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

John  Bascombe, 

3 

3 

6 

8 

John  Dawson, 

2 

7 

18 

23 

John  Richards,* 

3 

3 

9 

14 

Levy, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Little  Pacolet, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Longwaist, 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Mark  Moore, 

2 

2 

5 

6 

Marmion, 

2 

4 

11 

11 

Mazeppa, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Medley, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Medoc, 

14 

25 

64 

88 

Mercury,  Young's, 

1 

1 

2 

Mingo, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Monmouth  Eclipse, 

5 

11 

24 

32 

Nicholas, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Nullifier, 

1 

3 

7 

7 

Ocean, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

O'Kelly, 

2 

3 

9 

11 

Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


534: 


TAJBLE   OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  18A2— Continued. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

1 

Stallions. 

a 

2' 

■s 

t 

Stallions. 

i 

i 

. 

S 

^ 

Ch 

» 

^ 

^ 

Ph 

K 

§ 

; Orphan  Boy,* 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Pacific,* 

3 

5 

13 

24 

Partnership, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Reveille, 

2 

3 

1 

14 

Robin  Hood, 

1 

1 

3 

9 

Score  Double, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

jSea  Gull,* 

1 

1 

8 

3 

Shark, 

3 

4 

10 

19 

Sidi  Hamet, 

2 

4 

10 

Singleton, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Sir  Leslie, 

Stockholder,* 

jTelegraph, 

i  Tennessee  Citizen, 

1  Timolcon,* 

Tom  Fletcher, 

Traveller, 

1 
1 
2 
1 
3 
2 
1 

1 
2 
2 
2 
5 
2 
1 

2 
6 
6 
6 
10 
4 
1 

2 
6 
9 

7 

40 

6 

1 

1  TruHle  Hope, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

!l  Volcano, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Woodpecker, 

2 

5 

12 

29 

Wheeling  Rodolph, 

1 

2 

3 

8 

Young  Virginian, 

1 

2 

4 

4 

Zinganee,  Garri-  ) 
son's,*               f 

2 

7 

17 

43 

27 

133 

224 

513 

941 

73                  Il49 

225 

521 

867 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1843. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

2 

a 
a 

i 

p4 

1 

1 

Stallions. 

a 

a 

1 

Ainderby, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Andrew, 

3 

5 

13 

25 

Autocrat, 

1 

1 

9 

fi 

Bertrand,* 

« 

?, 

fi 

20 

Barefoot, 

3 

3 

8 

16 

Bcrtrand,  Jr., 

4 

5 

13 

29 

Belshazzar, 

3 

3 

8 

1(1 

Big  Archy, 

3 

3 

8 

12 

Berner's  Comus, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Bill  Gordon, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Camel,  Eng., 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Birmingham, 

3 

3 

6 

10 

Cetus, 

1 

2 

5 

S'Buck  Eik, 

1 

1 

"> 

2 

Chateau  Margaux, 

3 

3 

6 

18  !ciiorister, 

2 

3 

7 

19 

Consul, 

8 

6 

IC. 

32Clil'ton, 

1 

1 

4 

Emancipation, 

5      5 

11 

ISIjCollier, 

3 

3 

8 

8 

Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  l8iZ— Continued. 


535 


r 

BY  EMPOETED  SIKES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

a       s 

«• 

1 
1    i 

Stallions. 

c 

1 

m 

1 

Foreigner, 

~\ 

2 

4 

4' 

Columbus, 

2 

5 

7 

Glencoe, 

12 

13 

32 

67! 

Count  Badger, 

2 

2 

Hedgford, 

4 

1 

21 

30   Critic, 

1 

1 

Jordan, 

1 

2 

5 

5' 

Cymon, 

1 

2 

Leviathan, 

21 

26 

67 

97 

Davy  Crockett, 

6 

6 

Luzborough, 

5 

8 

20 

3l! 

Dick  Singleton, 

3 

3 

Margrave, 

5 

10 

23 

49, 

Dr.  Syntax, 

2 

2 

Mercer, 

2 

2 

4 

8! 

Drone, 

12 

22 

Merman, 

1 

1 

3 

•^i 

Duke  of  Wellington, 

2 

4 

Priam, 

17 

21 

50 

105^ 

Eclipse, 

10 

31 

55 

PhiUp, 

1 

1 

4 

8| 

Envoy, 

5 

5 

Rowton, 

5 

6 

17 

31 

Francis  Marion, 

2 

4 

Sarpedon, 

2 

4 

8 

Frank, 

4 

4 

Skylark, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Garrison's  Zinganee,* 

7 

28 

Tranby, 

3 

4 

8 

20 

Grey  Eagle, 

4 

4 

Trustee, 

10 

11 

42 

77 

Hugh  L.^Vhite, 

2 

4 

Valentine, 

1 

I 

4 

4 

Industry,* 

2 

2 

Zinganee, 

3 

3 

14 

Ivanhoe, 

Jerry, 

John  Bascombe, 

John  Belcher, 

John  Dawson, 

Lafayette, 

Longwaist, 

Lord  Byron, 

Mazeppa, 

Marion,* 

Marmion, 

1 

2 
9 
3 
6 
2 
7 
3 
4 
.  3 
2 

3 
2 

13 
6 

12 
2 

14 
3 
6 
6 
2 

Medoc, 

10 

10 

26 

52 

Mingo, 

8 

11 

Monmouth  Eclipse, 

16 

21 

Ocean, 

4 

4 

Othello, 

4 

4 

Pacific,* 

8 

8 

Plenipotentiary, 

4 

10 

Pressure, 

2 

2 

Red  Tom, 

3 

3 

Robin  Hood, 

2 

4 

Sir  Leslie, 

2 

2 

ITimoleon,* 

13 

44 

[Tom  Fletcher, 

2 

2 

'  Trumpator, 

2 

2 

Wild  Bill,* 

1 

1 

Woodpecker, 

2 

4 

Yorkshire, 

6 

6 

Young  Virginian, 

2 

12 

12 

28 

138 

152 

381 

682 

56 

108 

126 

316 

540 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


536 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1844. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEE3. 

BT  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

i 

i 

^ 

1 

Stallions. 

c 
a 

<n 

S 

1 

F 

1 

a 

a 

^ 

1 

w 

1 

Ainderby, 

3 

4 

8 

16 

Andrew, 

3 

3 

7 

17 

Barefoot, 

1 

2 

5 

20 

Bertrand,* 

1 

2 

6 

Belshazzar, 

3 

4 

9 

21 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

1 

2 

6 

Cetus, 

3 

1 

15 

18 

Birmingham, 

3 

5 

8 

Consul, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Bolivar, 

2 

3 

4 

Doncaster, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Borodino, 

1 

1 

1 

Emancipation, 

1 

2 

4 

10 

Busiris, 

3 

7 

14 

Glencoe, 

11 

19 

46 

94 

Cadmus,* 

1 

3 

3 

Hedgford, 

3 

4 

11 

33 

Chorister, 

5 

13 

21 

Jordan, 

5 

5 

12 

22 

Columbus, 

1 

7 

7 

Langford, 

2 

2 

4 

6 

Critic, 

2 

V 

7 

Leviathan, 

19 

28 

63 

117 

Crockett, 

2 

6 

6 

Luzborough, 

1 

1 

3 

9 

Eclipse, 

6 

16 

22 

Margrave, 

5 

8 

14 

33 

Flagellator, 

1 

2 

2 

Mercer, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Frank, 

3 

6 

6 

Philip, 

3 

7 

17 

30 

Genito, 

1 

2 

4 

Priam, 

21 

36 

84 

156 

Grey  Eagle, 

9 

27 

35 

Rowton, 

3 

10 

23 

44 

Hickory  John, 

3 

7 

11 

Sarpedon,  ' 

1 

2 

5 

13 

Hornblower, 

1 

2 

2 

Tranby, 

3 

5 

11 

14 

Jerry, 

1 

2 

2 

Trustee, 

6 

12 

28 

67 

Jolin  Bascombe, 

John  Dawson, 

Johnson's  Medley, 

Kangaroo, 

Longwaist, 

Marmion, 

Marion,* 

Masaniello, 

Mazeppa, 

Medley, 

Medoc, 

Mingo, 

Monmouth  Eclipse, 

Mons.  Tonson, 

Othello, 

Pacific,* 

Pamunky, 

Pennoyer, 

Reveille, 

Scipio, 

Sterling, 

Stockholder,* 

Tarquin, 

Tom  Fletcher, 

Wagner, 

Woodpecker, 

Zinganee,* 

4 

1 

2 

1 

1 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
6 
1 
1 
1 
3 
3 
1 
3 
1 
2 
1 
3 
1 
1 
1 
8 
1 

6 
2 
2 
4 
6 
2 
2 
3 
2 
2 

12 
2 
2 
2 
8 

10 
2 
6 
4 
4 
3 
6 
5 
2 
1 

25 
4 

6 
4 
4 

11 

15 
2 
4 
3 
2 
6 

18 
4 
2 
4 

20 

10 
2 
6 
4 
6 
6 

14 
5 
2 
1 

78 
4 

21 

98 

162 

370 

735 

47 

78 

10] 

256 

427 

Got  by  Sir  Arcby. 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1845. 


m 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

a 

1 

1 

s 

Stallions. 

i 

a 

M 

1 

Ainderbv, 

5 

10 

25 

45 

Andrew, 

3 

7 

18 

35 

Barefoot, 

1 

1 

3 

12 

Altorf, 

1 

3 

6 

10 

Belshazzar, 

4 

7 

16 

44 

Alps, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Cetiis, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

1 

1 

2 

8 

Consul, 

3 

5 

10 

15 

Boston, 

6 

6 

15 

22 

Doncaster, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Birmingham, 

6 

10 

23 

29 

Emancipation, 

1 

11 

31 

69i 

Bahe  Peyton, 

3 

7 

14 

14 

Foreigner, 

1 

2 

6 

15 

Busiris, 

1 

3 

6 

10 

Glencoe, 

10 

16 

41 

69 

Bolivar, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Hedgford, 

5 

15 

38 

91 

Black-lock, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Hibiscus, 

2 

2 

4 

6 

Convention, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Jordan, 

4 

5 

10 

20 

Chorister, 

1 

5 

15 

22 

Langford, 

5 

5 

10 

12 

Cadmus,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Leviathan, 

14 

14 

32 

49 

Count  Badger, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Monarch, 

3 

5 

12 

28 

Dick  Chinn, 

2 

4 

8 

22 

Margrave, 

6 

8 

19 

38|: 

Dan  O'Connell, 

1 

1 

1 

If 

Marmion, 

1 

2 

3 

3 

Eclipse, 

5 

6 

19 

25i 

Mercer, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Frank, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Meux, 

2 

3 

6 

6i' 

Grey  Eagle, 

4 

9 

26 

26 

Priam, 

10 

23 

47 

lOU 

Gohanna,* 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Philip, 

1 

1 

3 

9 

Genito, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Riddlesworth, 

2 

3 

5 

9 

Haywood, 

1 

1 

1 

Ft. 

Rowton, 

4 

6 

14 

31 

Hickory  John, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Sarpedon, 

2 

2 

3 

5 

Hualpa, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Sorrow, 

2 

2 

3 

3 

John  R.  Grymea, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Shamrock, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

John  Dawson, 

1 

2 

51       7 

Tranby, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Latitude, 

1 

1 

2!       2 

Trustee, 

5 

T 

15 

40 

Monmouth     ) 
Eclipse,       ) 

3 

3 

6 

8 

Valparaiso, 

2 

2 

5 

13 

Valentine, 

1 

1 

3 

2i 

Mark  Moore, 

1 

9 

22 

66 

William  IV., 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Medoc, 
Mirabeau, 

5 

1 

1 
3 

18 
6 

23 
10 

Muley, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Mingo, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Napoleon,* 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Othello, 

3 

8 

6 

8 

Pennoyer, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

iPacific,* 

3 

3 

8 

15 

Pete  Whet-      ) 
stone,            \ 

2 

2 

3 

3 

1 

Red  Tom, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Stockholder,* 

2 

3 

4 

10 

Sir  Leslie, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Sidi  Haniet, 

3 

3 

7 

7 

Swiss  Boy, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Shark, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

iSteriing, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Somonocodrom, 

1 

s 

s 

VI 

|Tarquin, 

2 

g 

S 

15 

IWoodpecker, 

2 

•" 

2C 

36 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


53S 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 


WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1845— Co7iti7iued. 


■ 

BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

1                                  — -  ■  '-■   

!                       BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

StaUions. 

1 

.2 

1 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

1 

Wa2;ner, 
West  Wind, 

6 

1 

1 
2 

20 
3 

34 
3 

31 

108 

ITl 

379 

7o4f 

50 

93 1 145 

354 

531f 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1846. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

i 

1 

W 

StaUions. 

r 

Ainderby, 

3 

3 

6 

14 

Altorf, 

2 

4 

8 

Barefoot, 

1 

1 

2 

8 

Andrew, 

2 

6 

6 

Belshazzar, 

5 

6 

12 

23 

Audubon, 

1 

2 

2 

Doncaster, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Balie  Peyton, 

5 

10 

21i 

Emancipation, 

3 

6 

12 

24 

Bandit, 

2 

7 

7 

Envoy, 

3 

5 

18 

26 

Birmingham, 

8 

18 

36+ 

Glencoe, 

9 

15 

34 

58 

Bloody  Nathan, 

1 

2 

4 

Ilvbiscus, 

2 

3 

8 

14 

Boston, 

11 

24 

45 

Jordan, 

2 

4 

V 

17 

Busiris, 

2 

5 

10 

Lanjrford, 

4 

4 

10 

18 

Chorister, 

9 

24 

38 

Leviathan, 

14 

15 

21 

51 

Collier, 

1 

4 

Luzborough, 

1 

2 

5 

9 

Cripple, 

1 

2 

Marjirave, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Dick  Chinn, 

1 

3 

9 

Monarch, 

3 

5 

14 

30 

Eclipse, 

4 

11 

15 

Nonplus, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Ecliptic, 

1 

1 

1 

Philip, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Frank, 

1 

3 

3 

Priam, 

10 

16 

35 

70 

Gano, 

1 

3 

3 

Riddlesworth, 

3 

5 

13 

17 

Gerow, 

1 

1 

1 

Shamrock, 

4 

4 

12 

28 

Grey  Eagle, 

9 

30 

43 

Sorrow, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Grey  Medoc, 

3 

U) 

10 

Sovereign, 

1 

4 

8 

22 

Hamlet, 

1 

1 

1 

Tranby, 

2 

3 

V 

14 

Hualpa, 

4 

10 

23 

Trustee, 

6 

10 

24 

46 

John  Dawson, 
John  R.  Grymes, 
Larry  O'Gaff, 
Marion,* 
Mark  Moore, 
Mirabeau, 
Monmouth  Eclipse, 
Monsieur  Tonson, 

3 

1 
3 
1 
3 

1 

1 

11 

2 

6 

1 
8 
4 
2 
2 

13 
4 
6 

1 
32 
12 
4 
6 

Othello, 

2 

3 

8 

15 

Pete  Whetstone, 

2 

2 

6 

15 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF    8TOCK. 


539 


WINNING  HOESES  FOR  IS4:&— Continued. 


1 

BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

StaUions. 

i 
1 

1 

1 

StaUions. 

t 
a 
a 

M 

4 

1 

IS 

Picton, 

1 

1 

9 

2 

Rolla, 

1 

4 

11 

30 

Sidi  Hamet, 

1 

1 

4 

8 

Steel, 

1 

r> 

11 

21 

Sterling, 
Stockholder,* 

1 

2 

2 
2 

7 
5 

25 
13 

Stumps, 
Tarltoii, 

1 
1 

2 
1 

4 

6 
2 

TarquiD, 
Tclamon, 

2 
2 

2 
2 

4 
6 

6 
6 

Wagner, 
West  Wind, 

4 

1 

5 

1 

". 

21 
2 

Wild  Bill,* 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Woodpecker, 
Zingauee,* 

1 

1 

1 

4 

2 

4 
2 

23 

81 

116 

268 

508 

■47 

1 

71 

123 

313 

491i 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1847. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

Stallions. 

1 

t 

■f 

S 

StaUions. 

S 

P 

s 

S 

^ 

& 

fS 

S 

i 

M 

w 

s 

Ainderby, 

3 

3 

6 

11 

Altorf, 

2 

5 

12 

23 

Belshazzar, 

3 

9 

22 

49 

Andrew, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Doncaster, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Balie  Peyton, 

1 

2 

4 

12 

Foreigner, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Beau, 

1 

2 

H 

Glencoe, 

11 

34 

81 

154 

Billy  Harris, 

1 

2 

4 

Langford, 

2 

3 

6 

7 

Birmiugham, 

6 

12 

29 

58 

Leviathan, 

12 

17 

39 

65 

Blacklock, 

1 

1 

0^ 

Margrave, 

8 

7 

17 

36 

Boston, 

8 

16 

36 

72 

Mercer, 

2 

4 

7 

11 

Cadmus,* 

1 

3 

3* 

Monarch, 

4 

6 

13 

23 

Chorister, 

1 

2 

4 

Priam, 

8 

9 

17 

31 

Clarion, 

1 

2 

4 

Riddlesworth, 

4 

9 

27 

27 

Convention, 

4 

14 

20 

Sarpedon, 

4 

4 

9 

18 

Dan.  O'ConneU, 

1 

3 

H 

Shamrock, 

3 

5 

12 

27 

Decatur, 

1 

2 

2 

Sovereign, 

1 

1 

2 

8 

Dick  Chinn, 

1 

8 

3 

Trustee, 

8 

12 

38 

65 

Earl  of  Margrave, 
Ecliptic, 

1 
1 

2 

1 

2 
1 

!  Eclipse, 

6 

8 

17 

19 

Frank, 

2 

' 

7 

7 

•  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


540 


TABLE   OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  ISil— Continued. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

i 

a 

. 

£ 

« 

Stallions. 

T 

2 

CO 

a 

& 

2 

% 

H 

1 

Gano, 

4 

12 

16 

Grey  Eapjle, 

10 

36 

39 

Grey  Medoc, 

6 

15 

22 

Hualpa, 

3 

7 

22 

Jim  Bell, 

1 

3 

3 

John  Dawson, 

3 

9 

9 

John  R.  Grymes, 

10 

20 

Manalopan, 

1 

1 

Mark  Moore, 

3 

6 

Masaniello, 

9 

2 

Medoc, 

3 

3 

Mirabeau, 

4 

14 

Monmouth  Eclipse, 

2 

2 

Mons.  Tonson, 

13 

31 

Norfolk, 

4 

4 

Pacific,* 

7 

9 

Pete  Whetstone, 

2 

8 

Reveille, 

fi 

6 

Rolla, 

1 

3 

Steel, 

2 

2 

Sterling, 

9 

27 

Sthreshley, 

2 

2 

Stockholder,* 

<) 

13 

Tattersall, 

3 

3 

Wa-ner, 

14 

20 

43 

74 

Winfiild, 

2 

2 

Zenith, 

3 

6 

Zinganee,* 

2 

4 

16 

70 

125 

289 

535 

47 

90 

146 

357 

57  5f 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1848. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

.2 

1 

& 

1 
1 

Stallions. 

t 
1 

i 

1 

J 
S 

Ain  derby, 

4 

5 

11 

15 

Altorf, 

3 

4 

9 

16 

Belshazzar, 

4 

7 

16 

36| 

Argyle, 

2 

3 

6 

10 

Blacklock, 

1 

1 

2 

2: 

Balic  Peyton, 

2 

2 

5 

15 

Doncaster, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Bengal, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Glencoe, 

9 

15 

32 

79 

Bertrand,  Jr., 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Jordan, 

2 

4 

1] 

15, 

Birmingham, 

2 

9 

16 

84 

■  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HOESES  FOR  1848. 


Ml 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

1 

f 

1 

StalTions. 

M 

1 

J 

Langford, 

1 

1 

3 

9 

Black  Prince, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Leviathan, 

11 

19 

4*7 

70 

Bob  Letcher, 

2 

2 

4 

10 

Margrave, 

2 

5 

12 

23 

Boston, 

h 

13 

25 

63 

Meux, 

2 

2 

3 

4i 

Broker, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Mercer, 

2 

3 

•7 

13 

Chorister, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Monarch, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Clarion, 

1 

2 

5 

10 

Priam, 

1 

15 

30 

41 

Conflagration, 

1 

2 

4 

6 

Riddlesworth, 

2 

3 

10 

10 

Cripple, 

2 

4 

12 

19 

Sarpedon, 

4 

6 

10 

23 

Decatur, 

1 

2 

7 

9 

Shamrock, 

1 

4 

9 

15 

Eclipse, 

5 

6 

16 

28 

Sorrow, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Emigrant, 

2 

2 

2 

If 

Trustee, 

8 

19 

40 

90 

Epsilon, 

2 

3 

8 

14 

Frank, 

2 

4 

14 

14 

Gano, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Grey  Eagle, 

5 

11 

30 

40 

Grey  Medoc, 

2 

4 

9 

18 

Hamlet, 

1 

4 

13 

18 

Jim  Jackson, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

John  Dawson, 

2 

3 

5 

7 

Mazcppa, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Mons.  Tonson, 

1 

1 

1 

3 

Oliver, 

2 

2 

7 

7 

Othello, 

1 

2 

3 

8 

Pete  Whetstone, 

1 

3 

6 

6 

Robinson, 

2 

2 

9 

9 

Santa  Anna, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Shark, 

1 

2 

5 

17 

Sterling, 

2 

2 

4 

14 

Tattersall, 

2 

3 

5 

7 

Telamon, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

ThornhiU, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Wagner, 

11 

15 

35 

97 

Zenith, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

18 

53 

112 

248 

4501 

39 

80 

125 

296 

544f 

TABLE   OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1849. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

4 

a 

s 

a 

Stallions. 

a 

Pi 

1 

a 

s 

S 

Ainderby, 

2 

5 

11 

11 

Altorf, 

1 

2 

2 

Belshazzar, 

4 

9 

2« 

32 

Ambassador, 

5 

n 

11 

Doncaster, 

2 

2 

6 

6 

Birmingham, 

9 

25 

65 

Envoy, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Blacklock, 

1 

2 

2 

Glcncoe, 

8 

21 

48 

94 

Bob  Letcher, 

3 

8 

22 

Jordan, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Boston, 

9 

21 

58 

Langford, 

1 

1 

4 

12 

Calmuck, 

1 

3 

3f 

Leviathan, 

10 

16 

35 

68 

Clarion, 

4 

8 

18 

Margrave, 

5 

11 

24 

47 

Eclipse, 

5 

12 

12 

Mercer, 

3 

4 

9 

18 

Frank, 

1 

2 

2 

Monarch, 

2 

2 

3 

5 

Grey  Medoc, 

6 

10 

15 

Priam, 

5 

9 

21 

27 

Grey  Eagle, 

11 

34 

40 

Sarpedon, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Jim  Brown, 

1 

1 

1 

Trustee, 

8 

14 

29 

55 

John  Blunt, 

1 

3 

6 

Valparaiso, 

1 

1 

4 

4 

John  Dawson, 

1 

2 

8 

Yorkshire, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Medoc,  Bohannon's, 

OUver, 

Orator, 

Othello, 

Pete  Whetstone, 

Red  Bill, 

Ringold, 

Robinson, 

TattersaU, 

Thornhill, 

Vaudreuil, 

Vertner, 

Wagner, 

WiUis, 

Zenith, 

1 
3 

2 
3 
3 
2 
1 
1 
2 
1 
2 
1 
13 
1 
3 

3 
8 
3 
8 
7 
5 
2 
3 
4 
3 
7 
1 

32 
1 

10 

3 
8 
6 

19 
7 
9 
2 
3 

10 
3 
8 
1 

73 
3 

10 

10 

55 

99 

226 

389 

30 

57 

97 

241 

410| 

^ 

¥m 

NINC 

i  HORSES  FOR  1850. 

BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATI\ 

'■E  8 

IRE 

3. 

Stallions. 

^ 

m 

1 

S 

StaUions. 

i 

a 

5" 

1 

1 

Ainderby, 

2 

3 

7 

7 

Albion, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Belshazzar, 

3 

5 

12 

18 

Altorf, 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Doncaster, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Ambassador, 

6 

8 

18 

23 

Felt, 

1 

1 

3 

11 

Bacchus, 

-i 

5 

12 

11 

TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1850— Continued. 


543 


BY  IMPORTED  SIEE3. 

BY  NATIVE  8IEE8. 

StaUions. 

2 

a 

i 

42 

03 

S 

Stallions. 

i 

n 

S 

S 

^ 

P^ 

la 

S 

^ 

M 

w 

!^ 

Glencoe, 

>j 

22 

51 

106 

Birmingham, 

2 

2 

7 

21 

Harkforward, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Blacklock, 

4 

7 

7 

Jordan, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Bob  Letcher, 

3 

8 

16. 

Langford, 

1 

3 

5 

lU 

Boston, 

16 

34 

1H 

Leviathan, 

8 

10 

22 

46 

Buckeye, 

3 

14 

17 

Margrave, 

4 

11 

46 

76+ 

Cadmus,* 

2 

2 

Mercer, 

4 

5 

10 

22 

Clarion, 

2 

4 

Monarch, 

3 

9 

19 

47 

Eclipse, 

4 

6 

Priam, 

4 

8 

16 

29 

Emigrant, 

2 

2 

Sarpedon, 

2 

3 

6 

9 

Epsilon, 

2 

4 

Trustee, 

6 

10 

21 

6U 

Glencoe,  Smith's, 

3 

3 

Valparaiso, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Grey  Eagle, 

18 

53 

69i 

Yorkshire, 

4 

1 

15 

25 

Grey  Medoc, 

Hamlet, 

Herald, 

Hero, 

Jim  Brown, 

Levi, 

Oliver, 

Orator, 

Othello, 

Regent, 

Ringold, 

Ruffin, 

Sterling, 

Tennessee  Citizen, 

2 
5 
2 
1 
2 
5 
6 
2 
16 
2 
3 
3 
2 
2 

4 
5 
2 
2 
2 
5 
5 
6 
19 

3 
5 
4 

2 

ThornhiU, 

2 

6 

12 

13 

Tom  Watson, 

2 

2 

5 

6 

Wagner, 

3 

3 

10 

17 

11 

53 

101 

240 

461 

33 

62 

102 

254 

356 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1851. 

BY  IMPOETED  SIKE3. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEE3. 

Stallions. 

1 

W 

1 

Stallions. 

2 

1 

1 

Doncaster, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Albion, 

1 

2 

5 

10 

Glencoe, 

11 

19 

48 

114+ 

Ambassador, 

9 

15 

33 

49 

Jordan, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Andrew, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Leviathan, 

1 

4 

9 

28 

Birmingham, 

3 

3 

6 

10 

Margrave, 

3 

4 

9 

16 

Blacklock, 

1 

2 

3 

3 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


5U 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WmOTNG  HORSES  FOR  1851— Continued. 


BY  IMPOKTED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

T 

e 

StaUions. 

i 

1 

1 

StaUions. 

.2 

1 

;5 

1 

Mercer, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Boston, 

14 

31 

59 

111 

Monarch, 

3 

4 

11 

31 

Boston,  Jr., 

2 

4 

10 

Priam, 

2 

2 

5 

5 

Cadmus,* 

1 

2 

2 

Sarpcdon, 

2 

2 

5 

7 

Calmuck, 

1 

5 

5 

Skylark, 

1 

2 

4 

10 

Chorister, 

5 

13 

27 

Sovereign, 

6 

12 

25 

35 

Cripple, 

1 

5 

10 

Trustee, 

6 

14 

31 

68 

Crusader, 

3 

4 

4 

Yorkshire, 

2 

3 

8 

27 

Eclipse, 

8 

6 

5* 

Emu, 

1 

1 

1 

Grattan, 

2 

4 

4 

Grey  Eagle, 

26 

64 

92i 

Grey  Medoc, 

2 

5 

5 

Herald, 

4 

8 

15 

lago. 

6 

13 

13 

Levi, 

1 

2 

4 

Medoc, 

7 

8 

"Ji 

Pacific,* 

1 

3 

8 

Prophet, 

6 

11 

11 

Register, 

2 

4 

8 

Rolla, 

1 

2 

2 

Thornhill, 

2 

5 

5 

Traveller, 

1 

2 

2 

Truxton, 

1 

2 

2 

Wagner, 

10 

21 

51 

108i 

13 

40 

10 

163 

349i 

29 

76 

153 

332 

526i 

wm 

NDTG 

r  HOI 

ISES  FOR  1852. 

BY  IMPOKTED  STEFfl 

1             ■ . — . 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

g 

S 

StaUions. 

^ 

1 

1 

1 

StaUions. 

^ 

1 

1 

1 

Belshazzar, 

4 

5 

10 

12 

Albion, 

1 

2 

3 

6 

Emu, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Ambassador, 

5 

1(» 

17 

23 

Glencoe, 

15 

23 

41 

85 

Bacchus, 

1 

1 

1 

^ 

Jordan, 

1 

3 

8 

8 

Bethuue, 

2 

3 

7 

Leviathan, 

2 

2 

5 

7 

Hoston, 

27 

46 

98 

168 

Margrave, 

2 

3 

6 

5* 

Boston,  Jr., 

1 

1 

2 

6 

Monarch, 

2 

2 

3 

7' 

( 'admus,* 

2 

6 

9 

2 

Priam, 

2 

4 

10 

11 

Clulde  Harold, 

1 

1 

2 

Sarpedon, 

1 

4 

10 

36 

Churchill, 

2 

3 

10 

17 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1852— Continued. 


54d 


BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

E 

S 

Stallions. 

0 

g 

-2 

M 

Stallions. 

c 

i 

5 

en 

.2 

1 

W 

■ 

1 

6 

_2 

1 

Sovereign, 

9 

20 

43 

84 

Conflagration, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Trustee, 

2 

4 

10 

33 

Cripple, 

1 

3 

8 

12 

Yorkshire, 

2 

3 

6 

13 

Crusader,* 
Duff  Green, 
Eclipse, 
Epsilon, 
Glencoe,  Jr., 

1 

5 

1 
1 
1 

2 
7 
2 
1 
1 

2 
18 

4 
12 

1 

2 

24 

5 

14 

1 

Grey  Eagle, 

10 

15 

30 

46 

Grey  Medoc, 

2 

2 

3 

7 

Herald, 

2 

2 

4 

8 

Hero, 

2 

6 

21 

Mariner, 

1 

2 

4 

OUver, 

1 

2 

1 

Othello, 

1 

1 

1 

Pamunky, 

2 

5 

5 

Pete  Whetstone, 

1 

2 

2 

Preston, 

1 

2 

2 

Prince  George, 

3 

7 

14 

Prophet, 

1 

3 

6 

Prospect, 

2 

2 

4 

6 

Register, 

2 

6 

5 

Ruffin, 

1 

3 

3 

Sir  Tatton, 

1 

2 

2 

ThornhiU, 

5 

10 

10 

Tempest, 

1 

2 

4 

Traveller, 

2 

6 

6 

Truxton, 

2 

5 

5* 

Wagner, 

6 

14 

39 

82X 

12 

43 

14 

154 

303i 

37 

92 

151 

339 

545^ 

WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1853. 

BY  IMPOETED  SIEES. 

n 

BY  NATIVE  SIEES. 

CO 

e 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

1 

t 

StaUions. 

1 

1 

5 

1 

1 

Belshazzar, 

2 

3 

6 

15 

Accident, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Envoy, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Alamode, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Glencoe, 

19 

33 

75 

136i 

Altorf, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Jordan, 

2 

3 

5 

6 

Ambassador, 

2 

2 

5 

9 

Margrave, 

2 

3 

6 

6 

Bacchus, 

4 

5 

5 

H 

Priam, 

' 

1 

1 

2 

Bethune, 

2 

8 

19 

37 

YoL.  I.— 35 


Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


546 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  185S— Continued. 


BY  IMPORTED  SIKE8. 

1 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

S 

E 

Stallions. 

§ 

42 

s 

§ 

Stallions. 

.S 

i 

1 

1 

Sarpedon, 

1 

5 

12 

39 

Boston, 

~27 

56 

131 

230 

Sovereign, 

8 

18 

33 

68 

Boston,  Jr., 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Trustee, 

2 

7 

13 

41 

Bulwer, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Yorkshire, 

1 

4 

8 

10 

Busirus, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Cadmus,* 

1 

9 

19 

23* 

Canada  BiU, 

1 

3 

3 

Of 

Childe  Harold, 

2 

5 

13 

16 

Chorister, 

2 

3 

6 

18 

Conflagration, 

1 

3 

4 

6 

Cripple, 

1 

3 

8 

13 

Crusader,* 

1 

1 

1 

oi 

DuflF  Green, 

1 

2 

5 

14 

Eclipse, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Emigrant, 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Epsilon, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Grattan, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Grey  Eagle, 

6 

13 

36 

55 

Grey  Medoc, 

2 

4 

5 

H 

Herald, 

2 

6 

11 

19 

Hero, 

2 

3 

6 

18 

Jim  Bell, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Leviathan,  Cage's, 

1 

2 

2 

H 

Medoc, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

OHver, 

2 

9 

15 

18 

Pamunky, 

1 

2 

3 

9 

Polidore, 

1 

3 

6 

8 

Prince  George, 

1 

3 

6 

16 

Prophet, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Prospect, 

1 

1 

2 

4 

Pythias, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Regent, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Register, 

4 

8 

20 

31 

Reliance, 

2 

2 

4 

4 

Rough  and  Ready, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Tempest, 

1 

4 

12 

14 

The  Colonel, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

1 

Truxton, 

1 

1 

2 

H 

! 

Voucher, 

2 

2 

5 

5* 

Wagner, 

9 

15 

27 

56i 

Wilton  Brown, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

10 

39 

JTS 

160 

324*1 

46 

101 

196 

414 

660 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


TABLE    OF    STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1854. 


547 


BY  IMPORTED  SIRES. 

BY  NATIVE  SIRES. 

Stallions. 

1 

1 

Stallions. 

^ 

i 

1 

1 

Ainderby, 

2 

3 

6 

10 

Altorf, 

2 

2 

Belshazzar, 

2 

4 

11 

13 

Ambassador, 

5 

5 

Consternation, 

] 

1 

4 

4 

Bethune, 

10 

22 

34 

Emancipation, 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Bill  Johnson, 

2 

2 

Emu, 

2 

3 

5 

5 

Black  Prince, 

1 

3 

6 

Glencoe, 

26 

56 

114 

222 

Boston, 

21 

50 

109 

245* 

Jordan, 

1 

3 

5 

Boston,  Hawkin's, 

2 

4 

Margrave, 

1 

4 

11 

20 

Bulwer, 

•■■ 

7 

9 

Sarpedon, 

1 

1 

2 

8 

Camden, 

2 

2 

Shamrock, 

1 

2 

4 

8 

Champion, 

5 

10 

Skylark, 

1 

1 

3 

6 

Childe  Harold, 

17 

38 

Sovereign, 

1 

12 

24 

57 

Competitor, 

1 

2 

Trustee, 

2 

5 

8 

25 

Duff  Green, 

1 

1 

Yorkshire, 

5 

8 

11 

24 

Emigrant, 

Epsilon, 

Flying  Dutchman, 

Gallatin, 

Grattan, 

Grey  Eagle, 

Grey  Medoc, 

Harry  Bluff, 

Harry  of  the  West, 

Herald, 

Hero, 

John  Adams, 

John  Bascombe, 

John  Black, 

Medoc, 

Othello, 

Portsmouth, 

Prince  George, 

Prophet, 

Regent, 

Register, 

Reliance, 

Rough  and  Ready, 

Ruffin, 

Tally  Ho, 

Tempest, 

The  Colonel, 

Tom  Brown, 

Truxton, 

17 

4 

2 

1 

15 

13 

24 

3 

37 

3 

6 

1 

7 

3 

6 
1 
4 
2 
2 
10 
1 
2 
6 
3 

I 
2 
6 

2 
17 
16 
34 

8 
69 

3 

H 

1 
12 

6 

2 

6 

1 

H 

4 

2 
19 

2 

2 

8 

3 

2 

8 

4 
13 

Voucher, 

3 

6 

14 

16 

Wagner, 

13 

23 

51 

93 

Zinganee,* 

1 

1 

1 

14 

53jl03 

214 

409 

45 

96 

193 

395 

7lli 

Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


548 


TABLE   OF   STOCK. 
WINNING  HORSES  FOR  1855. 


BY  IMPOETED  SIRES. 

BY  NATITE  SIRES. 

t 

i 

Stallions. 

1 

i 

1 

1 

Stallions. 

^ 

1 

Belshazzar, 

4 

9 

2(1 

23 

Albion, 

2 

2 

2 

2 

Consternation, 

1 

1 

3 

3 

Beth  una, 

2 

6 

21 

31 

Emu, 

2 

3 

4 

5 

Boston, 

8 

13 

29 

69 

Glcncoe, 

24 

42 

89 

174 

i Boston,  Jr., 

1 

1 

1 

Margrave, 

3 

16 

41 

84 

Buford, 

1 

2 

2 

Sovereign, 

8 

17 

35 

65 

Bulwer, 

6 

14 

14 

Trustee, 

1 

1 

2 

6 

1  Cadmus,* 

1 

1 

2 

Yorkshire, 

5 

9 

24 

32 

iChieftain, 

Childc  Harold, 

Chorister, 

Doubloon, 

Dnnvegan, 

Epsilon, 

Equinox, 

Flying  Dutchman, 

Gallatin, 

Grey  Eagle, 

Grey  Medoc, 

Hamlet, 

Hlinois  Medoc, 

Hector  Bell, 

Jessie  Fowler, 

Jim  Allen, 

John  Adams, 

Mahomet, 

Mariner, 

Medoc, 

Mens.  Tonson, 

Othello, 

I'olidore, 

Portsmouth, 

Priam,  llawkin's, 

Prince  George, 

Regent, 

Register, 

Revenue, 

Rough  and  Ready, 

Ruffin, 

Sir  Walter, 

St.  Patrick, 

1 
4 
1 
1 
1 
5 
2 

4 

1 
1 

1 
2 

1 
1 

1 
1 

5 
2 
1 

1 
1 
2 

3 
3 
6 
1 
1 
3 
2 
4 
1 

8 

1 

7 
5 
4 

15 

4 
1 
1 
5 
2 
2 
11 
3 
1 
2 
3 
4 
9 

12 
3 
2 
8 
6 
4 
3 

4 

30 

2 

1 

^^ 

12 
8 
16 

29 
4 
2 

2 
1 

5 
2 
2 
30 
5 
1 

6 

4 

9 
20 
14 

6 

2 

i 

3 

Tally-Ho, 

3 

11 

27 

54 

Tempest, 

2 

6 

15 

23 

The  Colonel, 

2 

3 

5 

13 

Herald, 

Trenton, 

1 

1 

1 

2 

Hero, 

Vincent  Nolte, 

1 

2 

4 

4 

Mariner, 

Voucher, 

3 

5 

13 

15 

Wagner, 

12 

25 

58 

122i 

Zinganee,* 

2 

2 

3 

5 

8 

48 

98 

218 

392 

48 

86 

- 

845 

628    1 

*  Got  by  Sir  Archy. 


SUMMAEY  OF  RESULTS. 

FEOM  THE  TABLES  OF  NATIVE  AND  IMPORTED  STOCK. 

The  preceding  tables  show  the  number  of  winners  in  each  year,  from 
1829  to  1855,  the  produce  of  native  and  of  imported  stallions,  and  the 
numbers  of  heats  and  miles  run  by  each  winner. 

These  tables  show  that  ever  since  the  imported  stallions  amounted 
to  more  than  nine,  they  have  got,  proportionally,  more  winners  than  the 
native  horses,  and  that  their  stock  has  run  more  heats  and  miles,  in 
winning  races,  than  the  same  number  of  winners  got  by  native  horses. 

The  following  summary  shows  the  results  at  a  glance  ;  and  annexed 
are  the  names  of  the  most  conspicuous  sires. 

I  have  occasionally  added  the  proportions,  which  would  have  been 
necessary  to  establish  an  equality  between  the  native  and  imported 
sires. 

In  1829. 

There  were  the  offspring  of  only  two  imported  stallions  running  in 
the  United  States,  in  1829,  against  the  stock  of  forty-two  native  horses, 
twenty-one  of  whom  were  sons  of  Sir  Archy ;  Eclipse  and  Duroc,  his 
grandsons,  not  included,  though  in  service  and  tried. 

Imported  horses    .      2  Winners    .       3  Heats    .      8  Miles    .      10 

Native  "         .42  "  .    137  "       .  539  "         .1,104J 

In  1830-1. 

Imported  horses    .      1  Winners    .       1  Heats    .      2  Miles    .       4 

Native         "         .86  "  .      90  "      .  26T  "       .    561 

In  1831-2. 

Imported  horses. — No  horse  was  serving  mares,  or  got  winners. 

Native         "         .    50     got     Winners    .    172      of      Heats    .  631      of     Miles    .  I,3l5 

Of  these  fifty-eight  stallions,  twenty-nine  were  sons  of  Sir  Archy. 

In  1832-3. 

Imported  horses    .      8  Winners     .       3  Heats    .    10  Miles    .      21 

Native         "         .71  "  .    199  "      .  677  "        .  1,319 

In  1833-4. 

Imported  horses    .      3  Winners    .       3  Heats    .      9  Miles    .      26 

Native         "         ,79  «  .    230  "      .  516  "        .  1,514 


550  THE    HORSE. 

In  1834-5. 

Imported  horses    .      6  Winners    .      13  Heats    .    35  Miles    .      C5 

Native         "         .90  "  .    265  "      .  851  "        .1,704 

In  this  year  Leviathan's  stock  began  to  show  on  the  turf. 

In  1835-6. 

Imported  horses    .      5  Winners    .      13  Heats    .    52  Miles    .      85 

Native         "         .93  "  .    273  "      .  850  "        .1,708 

In  ba.If  1836  and  1837. 

Imported  horses    .      9  Winners    .      51  Heats    .  140  Miles    .    265 

Native         "         .  104  "  .    287  "      .  621  "        .1,819 

In  this  year  Leviathan  and  Luzborough,  imported. 

Eclipse,  Medley  and  Medoc,  native. 

From  this  year  the  foreign  horses  take  a  decided  lead ;  hence,  in 
the  ratio  of  their  numbers,  the  native  horses  ought  to  have  got  510  win- 
ners of  1,400  heats  and  2,650  miles,  being  above  ten  to  one  to  the  for- 
eigners. 

In  1838. 

Imported  horses    .    18  Winners    .      97  Heats    .  385  Miles    .    600 

Native  "         .143  "  .    406  "       1,827  "         .2,445 

Luzborongh,  Leviathan,  Priam,  Fylde,  imported. 

Eclipse,  Sir  Charles,  Medley,  Medoc,  Timoleon,  native. 

The  native  horses  ought  to  have  got  774  winners  of  2,680  heats  and 
4,800  miles. 

In  1839. 

Imported  horses    .    17  Winners    .      86  Heats    .  282  Miles    .    529 

Native         "         .  118  "  .    267  "      .  921  "        .  1,691 

Imported. — ^Leviathan,  Fylde,  Luzborough. 

Native.— Andrew,  Bertrand,  Eclipse,  Medoc 

This  year  the  native  horses  ought  to  have  got  516  winners  of  5,526 

heats  and   10,146  miles,  in  order  to  have  equalled  the  performance   of 

the  imported  stallions.     It  is  not  worth  the  while  to  carry  out  the  ratio 

farther,  as  it  remains,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  the  same,  throughout ;  nor 

does  it  appear  probable  that,  thus  far  at  least,   if  ever,  the   English 

horses,  of  no  very  conspicuous  fame,  should  have  taken   the   choice   of 

the  mares  away  from  such  favorites  as  Eclipse,  Medoc,  and  the  sons  and 

grandsons  of  Sir  Archy. 

In  1840. 

Imported  horses    .    22  Winners    .    131  Heats    .  468  Miles    .    854 

Native         "         .  124  "  .    201  "      .945  "        .  1,753 

Imported. — Leviathan  and  Luzborough. 

Native. — Bertrand,  Eclipse,  Medoc. 

The  foreign  horses,  not  one-fifth  in  number,  did  more  than  one-half 
in  performance. 

In  1841. 

Imported  horses    .    23  Winners    .    133  Heats    .  469  Miles    .    858 

Native         "         .94  "  .    190  "      .  773  «        .  1,404 

Imported. — Leviathan,  Luzborough,  Priam,  Sowton. 

Native.— Bertrand,  Eclipse,  Medoc. 


551 


In  184:8. 

Imported  horses    .    27  Winners    .    133 

Native         "         .73  "  .    143 

Imported. — Priam,  Leviathan. 

Native.— Eclipse,  Medoc. 


This  year,  one-third  as  many  foreign  horses  got  within  a  fraction  of 
as  many  winners,  who  won  more  heats,  of  more  miles. 


316 


3T0 
256 


.  379 
.  351 


In  1843. 

Imported  horses    .    23  Winners    .    133  Heats 

Native         "         .56  "  ,    103  " 

Imported.— Leviathan,  Priam,  Glencoe,  Trustee. 

Native. — Eclipse,  Medoc. 

In  1844. 
Imported  horses    .    21  Winners    .      91  Heats 

Native         "         .47  "  .      73  " 

Imported.— Priam,  Leviathan,  Glencoe. 

Native. — Medoc,  Grey  Eagle,  Eclipse. 

In  1845. 

Imported  horses    .    31  Winners    .    108  Heats 

Native         "         .    50  "  .      93  " 

Jraported. — Leviathan,  Priam,  Glencoe. 

Native. — Medoc,  Wagner,  Grey  Eagle. 

In  1846. 

Imported  horses    .    23  Winners    .      81  Heats    .  263 

Native         "         .47  "  .      71  "      .  813 

Imported. — Leviathan,  Priam,  Glencoe. 

Native.— Boston,  Grey  Eagle,  Wagner. 

This  is  the  first  year  of  Boston's  stock  on  the  turf. 

In  184T. 
Imported  horses    .    16  Winners    .      70  Heats    .  289 

Native         "         .47  "  .      90  "      .  357 

Imported.— Leviathan,  Glencoe,  Priam,  Trustee. 

Native. — Wagner,  Boston,  Grey  Eagle,  Birmingham. 
In  1848. 
Imported  horses    ,    18  Winners    .      63  Heats    . 

Native         "         .89  "  .      80  "      .  296 

Imported.— Leviathan,  Glencoe,  Priam. 

Native.— Wagner,  Boston,  Grey  Eagle. 

In  1849. 
Imported  horses    .    16  Winners    .      53  Heats    .  226 

Native         "         .30  "  ,      57  "      .  241 

Imported.— Leviathan,  Glencoe,  Priam,  Trustee. 

Native. — Boston,  Grey  Eagle. 

In  1850. 
Imported  horses    .    17  Winners    .     53  Heats    .  240 

Native         "         .33  "  .      62  "      .  254 

Imported.— Leviathan,  Glencoe,  Trustee. 

Native.— Boston,  Grey  Eagle. 

In  1851. 
Imported  horses    .    13  Winners    .      40  Heats    .  163 

Native         «         .29  "  .      76  »      .  832 

Imported. — Glencoe,  Trustee. 

Native. — Boston,  Wagner,  Gre.r  Eagle. 


754f 
531* 


508 
491 


450i 
544 


410i 


552 


)2 

THE 

IIOKS 

In  1852. 

Imported  horses    .    12              Winners    . 
Native         »         .87                   "          . 

Imported.— Glencoe,  Sovereign. 

Native.— Boston,  Grey  Eagle,  Wagner. 

4.3 
92 

Heats    .  154  Miles    .    803* 

"      .  839  "        .    546 


In  1853. 

Imported  horses    .    10  Winners    .      89  Heats    .  ICO  Miles    .    324J 

Native         "         .46  "  .    101  "      .414  *'        .    660 

Imported.— Glencoe,  Sovereign. 

Native.— Boston,  Grey  Eagle. 

In  1854. 

Imported  horses    .    14  Winners    .      53  Heats    .  214  Miles    .    409 

Native         "         .    45  "  .      96  "      .  395  "        .    711i 

Imported. — Glencoe,  Sovereign. 

Native.— Boston,  Wagner,  Grey  Eagle. 

In  1855. 

Imported  horses    .      8  Winners    .      48  Heats    .  218  Miles    .    892 

Native         "         .    48  "  .      86  "      .  845  "        .    628 

Imported. — Glencoe,  Yorkshire. 

Native. — Wagner,  Boston. 

I  believe  that,  apart  from  this  condensed  summary  of  the  results, 
the  tables  themselves  will  amply  repay  persons  interested  in  the  myste- 
ries of  breeding,  in  and  ow^-crossing,  and  the  data  on  which  different 
theories  rest,  for  a  careful  perusal. 

It  is  indisputably  proved  by  the  above,  that  a  far  less  number  of 
imported  stallions  have  got  a  far  greater  number  of  winners  than  the 
American  stallions,  in  the  last  eight  and  twenty  years.  And  farther, 
that  the  winning  stock  of  the  English  stallions  have  won  rather  a  larger 
number  of  heats  and  run  a  greater  number  of  miles,  each  for  each,  than 
those  of  the  Americans. 

Some  of  the  very  best  stallions,  if  not  the  very  best,  of  both  conn- 
tries  have  been  brought  into  direct  competition;  audit  would  seem  evi- 
dent, even  to  the  most  prejudiced,  that  the  result  of  this  out-crosa  has 
been  beneficial  to  the  American  horse  of  the  present  day. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  Leviathan  has  got  by  far  the  greatest  number 
of  winners  in  the  most  years ;  next  to  him  Grlencoe,  Luzborough,  Sove- 
reign, Priam  and  Trustee. 

Of  all  these  horses,  except  Luzborough,  full  genealogical  tables  are 
given  in  the  body  of  the  work ;  as  also  of  English  Eclipse,  Diomed,  and 
Castianira,  the  sire  and  dam  of  Sir  Archy,  American  Eclipse,  Boston 
and  Fashion — and  the  consultation  of  these  tables  will  materially  assist 
the  breeder  of  horses  of  whatever  class. 


END    OF    VOL.    I. 


U 


